User:HistoricMN44/113hr1123

The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act or ACRONYM, is/was a bill/law introduced/passed to the 113th United States Congress

Provisions of the bill
This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Research Service, a public domain source.

The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act would repeal a Library of Congress (LOC) rulemaking determination, made upon the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, regarding the circumvention of technological measures controlling access to copyrighted software on wireless telephone handsets (mobile telephones) for the purpose of connecting to different wireless telecommunications networks (a practice commonly referred to as "unlocking" such devices). The bill would reestablish, as an exemption to provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prohibiting such circumvention, a previous LOC rule permitting the use of computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of such computer program solely to connect to such a network and access to the network is authorized by the network operator, thus permitting unlocked phones.

The bill would direct the Librarian of Congress, upon the recommendation of the Register, to determine whether to extend such exemption to include any other category of wireless devices in addition to wireless telephone handsets (e.g., tablets and other mobile broadband-enabled devices).

Congressional Budget Office report
''This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Budget Office, as ordered reported by the House Committee on the Judiciary on July 31, 2013. This is a public domain source.''

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing H.R. 1123 would have no significant effect on discretionary spending over the 2014-2018 period. Enacting H.R. 1123 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

H.R. 1123 would repeal a rule published in October 2012 by the Librarian of Congress (LOC) that would limit the ability of certain owners of wireless telephone handsets to “unlock” their phones, that is, to circumvent software protections that prevent the owner from connecting to a different wireless network. The bill would reinstate an earlier rule that provided broader authority to circumvent such software protections. H.R. 1123 also would direct the LOC to consider, within a year after enactment, whether to extend that broader authority to other categories of wireless devices in addition to smartphones. Based on information from the LOC, CBO expects that implementing the provisions of the bill would not have a significant effect on the agency’s workload.

H.R. 1123 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.

H.R. 1123 would impose a private-sector mandate by eliminating an existing right of action for wireless carriers (and others)—who are currently able to pursue legal action against those who, without permission, circumvent the access controls on wireless telephone handsets sold after January 26, 2013. The cost of the mandate would be the forgone net value of settlements and damages in such cases. A search of the literature suggests that few, if any, of those types of lawsuits have been brought against individual consumers. Because such claims would probably be uncommon in the future and the damage awards allowed in such cases would be relatively small, CBO estimates that the cost of this mandate would be small and fall below the annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($150 million in 2013, adjusted annually for inflation). If the Librarian of Congress decides to broaden the exemption allowed under the bill to cover other types of mobile devices, such an action would expand the limit of such rights of action. The cost of that expansion would depend on what devices the Librarian would include under the exemption. CBO has no basis to estimate additional costs as they would depend on the regulatory actions taken by the Librarian.

Procedural history
The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on March 13, 2013 by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R, VA-6). It was referred to the United States House Committee on the Judiciary and the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced on February 21, 2014 that the bill would be considered under a suspension of the rules on February 25, 2014. The House voted in Roll Call Vote 64 on February 25, 2014 to pass the bill 295-114.

Debate and discussion
Media coverage. Organizations and people for or against.