> What law or part of the constitution says that I have a right to an unlocked phone?
Maybe you'll be happier if I call it an "ability", not a "right", since I am not interested in a debate on what rights are.
To answer your question - none. That's what makes it so easy to lose. But do you not see the problem? Suppose all computers, not just phones, become so locked down. Your computing would be completely under the control of a handful of giant corporations - all without any legal right getting infringed.
Of course I don't need hypotheticals. Lets look at another example: Before the Civil Rights act, no rights were being infringed on by segregated businesses either, and people were free to choose non-segregated businesses. The government wasn't stopping anyone - yet it was still a problem.
> The government is the only threat to my legal rights.
If 100% of the phones on the market automatically censored mentions of Tiananmen Square, are your legal rights still not under threat? It doesn't matter if you're able to exercise your rights, as long as you have them?
The Civil Rights act doesn't cover sexual orientation, so in many states, you can still be fired for being gay. Hypothetically, if 10% of businesses refused to hire gays, would your answer still be "The government is the only threat to their legal rights"? What if it was 50%? 90%? 100%? How high would you let that % go before acting?
> you can still be fired for being gay. Hypothetically, if 10% of businesses refused to hire gays, would your answer still be "The government is the only threat to their legal rights"? What if it was 50%? 90%? 100%?
In the Federalist papers, James Madison famously said that it wasn't enough for a government to protect its people from the tyranny of a central authority (e.g., a king), a government must also protect various groups from tyrannizing each other.
> The Civil Rights act doesn't cover sexual orientation
It doesn't by name, but the pre-Trump EEOC viewed sexual orientation discrimination as necessarily involving gender stereotypes and thus being sex discrimination, and established precedent in two federal appellate circuits along that line; at least one circuit disagreed, and case has been heard by the Supreme Court this month (but not yet decided) which will likely resolve the circuit split.
Maybe you'll be happier if I call it an "ability", not a "right", since I am not interested in a debate on what rights are.
To answer your question - none. That's what makes it so easy to lose. But do you not see the problem? Suppose all computers, not just phones, become so locked down. Your computing would be completely under the control of a handful of giant corporations - all without any legal right getting infringed.
Of course I don't need hypotheticals. Lets look at another example: Before the Civil Rights act, no rights were being infringed on by segregated businesses either, and people were free to choose non-segregated businesses. The government wasn't stopping anyone - yet it was still a problem.
> The government is the only threat to my legal rights.
If 100% of the phones on the market automatically censored mentions of Tiananmen Square, are your legal rights still not under threat? It doesn't matter if you're able to exercise your rights, as long as you have them?
The Civil Rights act doesn't cover sexual orientation, so in many states, you can still be fired for being gay. Hypothetically, if 10% of businesses refused to hire gays, would your answer still be "The government is the only threat to their legal rights"? What if it was 50%? 90%? 100%? How high would you let that % go before acting?