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Has your cellphone carrier been giving you the run around each time your request information for unlocking your personal GSM handset? Tired of being locked to a carrier because of a handset lock? The US Copyright Office issued new rights which will de-stress your move from GSM carrier to GSM carrier making your switch a whole lot easier.

Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday. Other copyright exemptions approved by the Library of Congress will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books. [...]

Providers of prepaid phone services, in particular, have been trying to stop entrepreneurs from buying subsidized handsets to resell at a profit. But even customers of regular plans generally can’t bring their phones to another carrier, even after their contracts run out.

Billington noted that at least one company has filed lawsuits claiming that breaking the software locks violates copyright law, which makes it illegal for people to circumvent copy-protection technologies without an exemption from the Copyright Office. He said the locks appeared in place not to protect the developer of the cell phone software but for third-party interests.

Now if we could only convince congress to remove the DRM lock from purchased music. If you can’t unlock or freely use purchases bought online, do they really belong to you?