From Saturday, January 26, you’ll have to ask your carrier to unlock your smartphone if you wish to use it on another network. It will become illegal to do so yourself using unauthorized unlocking methods — even if your contract has run its course and you no longer have a commitment with the original provider.

Another important cause has come to light, one that needs our support just as much as fighting SOPA or any other anti-freedom attack brought by greed. An extremely important and personal part of owning tech, is having the ability to play with it, learn from it, and improve it. Not everyone sees it this way, and some even want to restrict what you can and can not do to these tech products well after you’ve purchased them and taken them home. There are many greedy companies out there that wish to keep users shackled to their products, and claim things like jailbreaking or rooting violates Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).