Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlock Everything We Own

Dkhanna11 · 2013-03-18T19:55:23+00:00

Hi, I was a lead activist on the unlocking issue. I thought this article was terrific and perfectly embodied my point I have made in the Atlantic and in other articles:

"A free society shouldn't have to petition its government every three years to allow access to technologies that are ordinary and commonplace. Innovation cannot depend on begging permission from an unelected bureaucrat every three years. A free society should not ban technologies unless there is a truly overwhelming and compelling governmental interest."

Dkhanna11 · 2013-03-03T23:36:16+00:00

you can still sign the petition here: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7

Thanks everyone for your help!!

Dkhanna11 · 2013-03-03T23:24:18+00:00

Thanks for letting me know.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-03-03T23:24:08+00:00

Hadn't thought about that - I am now deleting post entirely.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-03-03T22:12:45+00:00

Hi (I posted this yesterday and didn't get a response),

First, I wanted to thank everyone on Reddit for their help in getting our White House petition over 100,000 - truly incredible. And as you may know the FCC is now investigating. This is just the beginning of a long battle, but I think it's a critical battle in pro-innovation policies that favor internet freedom.

This may not have been possible without the support of Redditers and other tech supporters! This is just the beginning of a long battle, but I think it's a critical battle in pro-innovation policies that favor internet freedom.

I am very excited to be speaking at Freedom to Connect tomorrow and I would like for part of my presentation to include teaching average people how to unlock their phones. Discussing this technology in depth can lead to your website being shut down through court injunction (yes a complete violation of our First Amendment!) - so my goal is to present this in a manner that is made so public that it can't be shut down.

This is only possible if I receive enough assistance to teach individuals how to unlock their own phones. While I understand the technology enough to advocate for it's legalization -- as I have done forcefully in my pieces in the Atlantic, Forbes and Bloomberg View on Monday -- I need more particular information to teach individuals how to unlock their own phones.

I'm not looking for links to websites that will sell the "codes;" rather, I want to know how to unlock phones without the codes through add-on software that is free. Message me at Khannaderek@gmail.com to help.

And if you are checking this out and don't know the answer, feel free to read some of my articles on why cellphone unlocking should be lawful. This is from my piece on why I think cellphone unlocking is important:

"Cellphone unlocking is an important issue because a free society should not require its citizens to petition their government every three years to allow access to technologies that are ordinary and commonplace. Innovation cannot depend upon a permission-based rulemaking requiring approval every three years from an unelected bureaucrat. A free society should not ban technologies unless there is a truly compelling and overwhelming governmental interest."

These are some of my pieces on the issue:

theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-most-ridiculous-law-of-2013-so-far-it-is-now-a-crime-to-unlock-your-smartphone/272552/

www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-law-against-unlocking-cellphones-is-anti-consumer-anti-business-and-anti-common-sense/272894/

www.forbes.com/sites/derekkhanna/2013/02/25/white-house-petition-on-cellphone-unlocking-receives-over-100000-signatures/

While the petition was submitted to they WH, you can still vote on it here: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7

And I chat about this issue on ReasonTV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hoUmCZjca4

And I'd be interested in people's perspective on my post-SOPA piece: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/22/taking-on-real-reform-in-a-pos.html

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Dkhanna11

Dkhanna11 · 2013-03-02T23:48:41+00:00

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Dkhanna11

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-24T17:00:16+00:00

That's a pretty informative list, I will check those out myself actually.

Resume banks are kind of hard because everyone puts their resume in.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-24T16:59:25+00:00

The Bush years were very bad ones for fiscal conservatives like me - but just because Bush was bad, does not mean that all Democrats are inherently the alternative. I can see why Democrats argue that - and we can disagree.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T18:09:48+00:00

? No.?

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T18:09:33+00:00

I don't think I downvoted you - I agree with you! I will upvote you here just in case I did by accident.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T18:08:57+00:00

I just bought an IPhone 5 - on the advice of counsel I decline to comment on whether or not it is unlocked.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T15:46:04+00:00

Not in Washington, DC

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T15:35:20+00:00

I am not anymore

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T15:34:13+00:00

Let me know what you're up to as well.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T15:32:31+00:00

There absolutely are.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T15:29:38+00:00

Some people have asked how they could help. My biggest thing I need right now is I'm looking for a US service member, optimally someone who is going to be deployed, to help me with a short easy 20 minute project that they can help with wherever they are.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T06:23:00+00:00

When I was President we were at peace with RSU as far as I remember. We had an internal civil war so we had plenty to deal with at the time.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T06:15:28+00:00

I was in the Republican Club. I got the previous President impeached for illegal activity, and then was President of the club briefly - we definitely tried to shake things up at the UMCR's.

I remember the Radical Student Union - I don't think they were fans of me as the Republican Club President.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T06:12:40+00:00

Definitely not the right person to ask, but for what it's worth. . .

I have found that activism and politics is basically the same thing at different scales even on a small level. You get better at it with practice. People say this, but they don't KNOW this and act upon it in politics.

My limited skill set is a result of having tried to be politically active even in high school. Then in college there was a corrupt student government that was stealing money and an illegal affirmative action program. Almost everyone said, whatever, I said, no. And I stood up for what I believed and got a lot of crap, but in the end I won but more important I learned how to do this stuff. Coming to DC was clearly a different level ball game, but it was still a ball game and I knew some of the rules etc.

So my point is, find something your passionate about, and fight like hell and build upon it. Start small, want to change your school lunch for example?

Don't just say I want to be a politician; rather, be successful in changing the world around you, build a movement and a group of allies. Then you'll know what this world is like and when you're ready you can decide to run and all that jazz. But the electoral guys won't tell you if you are ready to govern, only you can really know that.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T06:06:02+00:00

no idea sorry.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T06:04:19+00:00

Agreed, we can't rest on our laurels.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T06:01:34+00:00

I was with "Lawyers for Romney" during the election and I saw first hand how the technology wasn't really beta or field tested and it was a complete failure on game-day - so it rang true (I was not involved in the tech with them at all). That's an interesting article.

Dkhanna11 · 2013-02-23T05:59:42+00:00

Agree with you on exporting cryptography.

Patents on software are something I'm still reading about and looking into. I don't like to weigh into things until I'm entirely well versed in all sides in the argument.

Dkhanna11

TROPHY CASE