bipbopcosby

Are you still in Seattle area? Where do you do stand up? I'd come watch you. I've thought about doing stand up before. The anxiety I feel from thinking about the anxiety I would feel cripples me already but fuck it, I may give it a shot sometime.

I'm really glad I saw this. I'll definitely be doing all I can to help!

I have a small phone buyback program and I'm not really sure if my issue is directly related to your cause, but it's close (I think). I see phones in all kinds of conditions. I sell a lot of the phones to repair/refurbishing business and the topic of "repairing" the IMEI came up. There are multiple tools out there that allow it, but we were discussing the legality of doing it. We came to no conclusion because we didn't really find much on the subject, but what you have here seems to be related (I admit, I didn't read through all the links, but I saved it so I can later). We found multiple references on different forums like XDA that all reference the same Senate bill that never passed, but it did specifically mention altering the IMEI being legal for repair/refurbishing.

Obviously we know and feel that it should be illegal to clone a good ESN onto a blacklisted phone. We were specifically trying to understand the legality of removing the bad logic board from a broken phone and replacing it with a good logic board from another broken phone and repairing the IMEI to match the phones physical IMEI labels. There are companies like Asurion that have their own branded IMEI labels in their refurbs. I've never used the IMEI repair tools so I'm not sure what they actually change in the phone, but to me it seems like if it is legal to print your own IMEI label to match the phone then it should be legal to repair the IMEI to match the OEM label.

So! If I have a perfectly functional logic board and a phone that's beyond economical repair due only to fails on the logic board and I swap them, is it legal to repair the IMEI to match? Is it actually legal to print or swap the IMEI labels?

I really appreciate the work that the EFF and iFixit are doing! I can't thank the iFixit crew enough for the guides, too. Your breakdowns/guides helped me expand my business by allowing me to inspect and understand the device before I tear into it and potentially ruin something. I'm eternally grateful! I try to order my tools from you whenever I need things faster than using my regular supplier. My order yesterday was processed fast too, so thanks again!!

Have you ever considered changing the to the PolioMinus Program?