First, the good news. The legal shield for jailbreaking and rooting your phone remains up – it’ll protect us at least through 2015. The shield for unlocking your phone is down, but carriers probably aren’t going to start suing customers en masse, RIAA-style. And the Copyright Office’s decision, contrary to what some sensational headlines have said, doesn’t necessarily make unlocking illegal.

Mitch Stoltz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) explains how legal protection has expired for U.S. citizens who unlock their own phones without their carrier’s permission; what it means going forward and how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) affects American consumers.