By 2013, You'll have to get your Carrier's permission to unlock your phone

As you may know, Jailbreaking your phone is now officially legal in the United States, but if you are trying to treat your tablet to the same level of freedom you'd be in violation of the law. What sounds like an absurd decision comes straight from the US Copyright Office, saying that jailbreaking a phone doesn't break copyright law, but this does not apply to other devices.

Why are tablets so weirdly not included? Because, Tablets are simply too hard to define and an exemption could have been used for e-readers and mobile gaming consoles. The decision comes in a triennial review of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

But what's even more baffling, is the fact that unlocking your phone to work with any carrier, while still legal, is now much more limited. You'd be able to unlock your phone freely by End of 2012. BUT Starting in 2013, you'd need permission from your carrier to unlock your phone to have it work on other carriers.

U.S. Copyrigh [.PDF]