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Official Who Refused To OK Cell Phone Unlocking Retires
- Arstechnica, Wednesday, September 30, 2015 2:17 PM
James Billington, the 86-year-old Librarian of Congress, is retiring today. Billington, who was appointed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, is responsible for deciding whether to exempt digital lock-cracking from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention prohibitions. Several years ago, he declined to grant an exemption for circumventing digital locks for the purpose of unlocking cell phones. Congress reversed that decision last year, when it legalized phone unlocking.
