The government has big plans for the All Writs Act. Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr CC

Right from the start, the current iPhone vs. FBI standoff has revolved around whether it was focused on unlocking one specific handset or setting a precedent that would allow the Justice Department to unlock any phone it wanted.

Well, if you wanted evidence that the government is using the All Writs Act to try and force Apple and Google to unlock a whole lot of smartphones around the U.S., look no further than the below infographic.

Now that unlocking your phone is legal in the United States, carriers have no choice but to let you use your device with other service providers as soon as your contract is up. T-Mobile is preparing to make it super simple for you to do that by pre-installing an unlocking app on your device that will remove its shackles as soon as it is eligible.

Hate the fact that your wireless carrier keeps your smartphone locked? President Obama does too. The White House has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission asking that wireless carriers be required to unlock all mobile devices.

A group of U.S. Senators have introduced a new bill that will allow cellphone owners to legally unlock their devices again after their contract has expired.

Called the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, and backed by Al Franken and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill would reverse a Library of Congress ruling from October 2012 that deemed cellphone unlocking illegal unless the process was performed by a carrier.

There’s been a lot of noise lately surrounding smartphone unlocking. On October 28, 2012, the Library of Congress said it was going to be illegal to unlock your smartphone starting on January 26, 2013.

Since then, Obama has stepped in and said that’s totally not fair. And then a few legislators have brought up bills to make sure people can unlock their smartphones without facing criminal charges. Now AT&T says it wants to be perfectly clear that they don’t really want you to go to jail for unlocking your smartphone.