Sign this petition for legal phone unlocking - General Topics

Hey guys and gals! I saw this news article on a petition going around to help battle the issue with illegal phone unlocking (through carriers, not yourself). Regardless, sign it!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

Yeah I heard about this awhile ago, really sucks. I live in Canada though >

SIGNED

signed!

Is this still needed?

signed!

signed!

The Whitehouse has already responded in favor of this petition, you don't need to keep signing it.
The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties.
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i read their responsive but they never said yes or no if they are making it legal or not
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

I heard there is a bill which is being passed by white house soon, relating to legalizing phone unlocking it says that every customer has rights to unlock his/her phone.

This is also badly needed for windowsrt with restricted boot.

Huge need for making thus procedure legal.
This will be very helpful for many developers and for those who try to use new custom ROMS too!

signed

If I am Canadian, am I even allowed to sign this?

Related

Comment I left for HTC regarding the boot loader

The Evita has been available for nearly 3 months now. Is AT&T going to allow sanctioned bootloader unlocking? Was there any indication that after a period of time, the phone would be unlock able via HTC Dev? I'm considering selling my One X and never buying an At&T subsidized phone again, You are trying to come across as development friendly, but alas your flagship device sold in the United States is not unlock able.
Please advise without a canned response about carrier restrictions. I know all about that answer, I'd like a straight yes or no on this question please.
Lets see what I get in response
knowing the good folks at HTC you'll get the carrier crap...
heres to hoping tho
here's an idea, which is always fun. play the carrier against the manufacturer.
when they say its the carrier, go to the carrier and ask them, when each other blames it on each other, show them that's what going on. they hate.
Back when the phone launched I,along with a few other people filed complaints against AT&T with the BBB they went nowhere.
*sigh*
HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we'll continue to unlock additional devices in the future. I do apologize that I do not have any further information at this time. I hope you enjoy your weekend,Gunnyman
If this answers your comment or question, please click here to complete the process.
To submit another comment, please click here.
Sincerely,
The HTCDev Team
again
*sigh*
gunnyman said:
*sigh*
HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we'll continue to unlock additional devices in the future. I do apologize that I do not have any further information at this time. I hope you enjoy your weekend,Gunnyman
If this answers your comment or question, please click here to complete the process.
To submit another comment, please click here.
Sincerely,
The HTCDev Team
again
*sigh*
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So reply back saying that's the answer you didn't want and that you'll keep sending emails everyday until you get the truth.
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
SkizzMcNizz said:
So reply back saying that's the answer you didn't want and that you'll keep sending emails everyday until you get the truth.
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
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Oh I did
I can per persistent as hell.
I just hate the thought of this awesome phone's dev community getting screwed without the benefit of even a reach around.
I'm in a very pissy mood today.
They just stop replying after about ten replays..HTC doesn't care about customer post purchase,you already bought the phone....
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
I will say thanks for taking the plunge first ....I know I'm better off because of it ....
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
mounttimp said:
They just stop replying after about ten replays..HTC doesn't care about customer post purchase,you already bought the phone....
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
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The a$$holes quit responding to me as well... I feel you gunny. I'm a lil worried about all this WP added everywhere .. they are sealing all our holes..
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
SkizzMcNizz said:
So reply back saying that's the answer you didn't want and that you'll keep sending emails everyday until you get the truth.
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
That is the truth. It's AT&T's fault. Start emailing them.
When I first got my phone and they gave me the generic customer satisfaction text I left negative feedback. If you leave below a certain score they will ask you why you wouldn't recommend the phone. I mentioned the bootloader and bloatware, as well as lack of Wallet support.
Don't bother contacting AT&T. If it truly is AT&T forcing HTC to keep the bootloader locked then the sad reality is those of us that like to tinker are an extremely small minority in their portfolio. AT&T couldn't care less about appeasing us and, from a business standpoint, I don't blame them. Us tinkerers are the ones that install the Asian ROM and create a portable hotspot for an 8 hour drive down the state so their kids can stream Netflix on the iPad in the backseat, soaking up precious bandwidth that AT&T would like to charge me a boatload for. Totally random example, wasn't me last week.
ComposMentis said:
Don't bother contacting AT&T. If it truly is AT&T forcing HTC to keep the bootloader locked then the sad reality is those of us that like to tinker are an extremely small minority in their portfolio. AT&T couldn't care less about appeasing us and, from a business standpoint, I don't blame them. Us tinkerers are the ones that install the Asian ROM and create a portable hotspot for an 8 hour drive down the state so their kids can stream Netflix on the iPad in the backseat, soaking up precious bandwidth that AT&T would like to charge me a boatload for. Totally random example, wasn't me last week.
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There may be more of us than you think. AT&T is about to give up on the added tethering plans for certain users. The new shared data family plans include tethering. You just pick your data cap and go.
Even though I've got grandfathered unlimited data, I may go for this when it's available. Adding up data totals for the three smartphones I'm paying for, we'll still save some money and get "free" tethering.
I feel the exact same way Gunny. My Nexus One was my first smart phone, and obviously, my first HTC. I had such a good experience, I went straight back to HTC for my next phone (this one) but it's clear now that the Nexus One was an anomaly in HTC's history. I'm thinking its going to be Nexus or Samsung devices only for me from now on. Not sure how much longer I can hold out with this device. If the damn camera wasn't so awesome I would have sold it months ago. =(
Billy
HTC can't do anything, it's not their fault. You should be contacting AT&T, not HTC.
im new to this phone so sorry if this is a noob question, but i rooted my phone and im assuming i unlocked the bootloader as im running cleanrom, to me the process was fairly easy to do, so whats the reason behind needing HTC to officially support unlocked bootloaders? will it give us the ability to do something more or make it easier to unlock?
blessedswine said:
im new to this phone so sorry if this is a noob question, but i rooted my phone and im assuming i unlocked the bootloader as im running cleanrom, to me the process was fairly easy to do, so whats the reason behind needing HTC to officially support unlocked bootloaders? will it give us the ability to do something more or make it easier to unlock?
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I have no idea. Either way it does affect yor warranty, so I'm not sure why others dont use the CID mod to unlock.
We need a sanctioned method to unlock because the method we have now is not going to work on 2.2.0 and we should not have to scramble like iphone jailbreakers on supposedly open android whenever there's a software update
gunnyman said:
We need a sanctioned method to unlock because the method we have now is not going to work on 2.2.0 and we should not have to scramble like iphone jailbreakers on supposedly open android whenever there's a software update
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The One X is Android? It's so locked down, I could have sworn it was made by Apple.
SkizzMcNizz said:
The One X is Android? It's so locked down, I could have sworn it was made by Apple.
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Exactly

Keep unlocking phones legal!!

This really is a USA thread only but all can get involved. Recently our government has ruled that unlocking phones without carrier permission is now illegal. Please sign this petition to change such law so that we can own the technology we buy!!!
http://wh.gov/yA9n
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I don't see what's so unfair about this.
This impacts people who are buying carrier-subsidized devices. This is a practice that has always benefited the carrier much more than the consumer.
This ruling shouldn't be something to get mad about directly - people should be mad about how badly they're being screwed over by subsidies in general. I think it's fair enough that if you sign up to be screwed, you get your full screwing.
Also, if you actually read the thing, it doesn't apply to used devices. This only applies to new phones bought under contract wherein you had full disclosure about the phone's state and the carrier's policy - no one should hedge their bets on being able to circumvent the terms they agreed to.
Even if you buy a phone at full price from a carrier it is still illegal to unlock it without the carriers approval. Thats my issue.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
See the problem is that they claim they are losing money on people unlocking their phones then going to another carrier. The flaw here is that they aren't losing anything, if someone cancels the contract they pay the etf, and if they don't they are still paying monthly because of the contract. Its just another scheme to hurt our money. Carriers can get in on the cell phone unlocking business and charge money to unlock their own cellphones, and there won't be anyone to compete
Sent from my DKOSP using Tapatalk 2
this is the result of old baby boomers who do not understand or appreciate info tech but "represent us" in govt + ridiculous amounts of corporate lobby money in politics + people surprised and shocked when they realize they voluntarily screwed themselves by signing bad contracts.
that said, people are too freaked out by this. ask yourself: will you still unlock your phone even if its illegal? if course you would and so would most people. so, who cares?
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
bleggy said:
this is the result of old baby boomers who do not understand or appreciate info tech but "represent us" in govt + ridiculous amounts of corporate lobby money in politics + people surprised and shocked when they realize they voluntarily screwed themselves by signing bad contracts.
that said, people are too freaked out by this. ask yourself: will you still unlock your phone even if its illegal? if course you would and so would most people. so, who cares?
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
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If I paid full price for my phone, I should be able to do whatever I like to it.
But the real impact is: this law kills the spirit of technology innovation.
I see this as an issue between the consumer and carrier. Stop buying phones that don't come unlocked - demand that carriers make it an option or buy used / phones sold as unlocked only.
Carriers are slowly realising that they're losing business if they don't give people the options they want - see Sprint rolling out a pre-paid service (not just the other brands they own).
If a business is screwing you, take your business to one whose terms you like. It's like pay-day loans - terrible for you, but it's your choice to do something terrible for yourself.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
jozmedia said:
If I paid full price for my phone, I should be able to do whatever I like to it.
But the real impact is: this law kills the spirit of technology innovation.
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Click to collapse
If you buy your phone on contract, the cost of phone is almost always subsidized and you're playing by their rules. You're essentially leasing the device.
If you buy your phone at full mrsp price, then yes, you should be free to do whatever.
I dont see how this stifles tech advancements at all; I just see the creation of more underground and gray markets for unlocking services. All the bodega cellphone stores will still unlock phones for 30 bucks; they may just advertise less. Hell, they probably wont change that. Do you think cops will even care? Not where I live.
And unlocking tools/codes/apps will still be all over the internet. They may not be on the US Google Play Store anymore. Big deal.
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Exactly. Its not that big of a deal if you.have the know how. I unlocked my galaxy note 2 subsidized without my carriers permission. In 30 seconds flat to work on any carrier. I could care less what government agency cares. And care less about.any legislation anyways as i am officially branded by.my government as an outlaw anyways. I have no respect for worthless laws.
Nor do the police have any means of enforcing this at the moment anyways. And yes i know because i take the.exact same.classes that.digital forensic offocers.take.at.my.college
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I was going to make this same exact thread.
Surprised to see so little activity on this topic especially here on XDA.
I would assume 95% of XDA members phones are unlocked/hacked so this would affect us.
Doesn't matter if you don't think it will be enforced or not, you shouldn't have to worry about being prosecuted just because you want to experiment with your own phone.
We need to reject laws like these that are hostile to the consumer and show greedy corporations and politicians that we are paying attention and won't stand for this crap.
Agreed
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
papi92 said:
Even if you buy a phone at full price from a carrier it is still illegal to unlock it without the carriers approval. Thats my issue.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Okay now that's just wrong on the carrier's part because when you pay full price, you literally own the phone.
Sent from my GT-P3110 using xda app-developers app
free phones and other devices
I don't like such politics. I want devices free!!!
Too little too late?
There was a thread for this, your probably not seeing it bc no one has posted on it in 4 or 5 days. Its really sad too especially considering that this is probably the first in a line of laws to be unfairly passed that screw the consumer. To everyone overseas: not everyone wants to do something they know is technically illegal, enforced or not. The options for unlocked phones get pretty narrow if you like a certain kind of phone, and even narrower if you are tied to a particular service that has better reception in your area like say verizon like with me. I live in the middle of nowhere...lol but that's a different subject. The point is this sucks bc it takes away our options as consumers. We shouldn't have to not buy locked phones until all the carriers get the hint and safe to say that would take time. Obviously they see the wisdom in this move for them or they would not have done it. I was like the 14,000th signature on this petition and have been watching and promoting it everywhere, and sadly it looks like we have lost the needed speed to finish with 100k sigs. At this rate we will finish with about 80k give or take i figure. Not saying give up bc i wont, but everyone that is in the u.s. and understands whats involved needs to pick it up big time as this gets less media coverage. Spread the word!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7
This big brother administration keeps ramming through laws that hurt the consumer!
If we purchase a non subsidized phone at full retail do they lower our monthly bill? Can we carrier unlock?
The answer to both is no. Funny how they get it all and we get nothing in return. Enough is enough already.
I will gladly pay full retail if I "own" my phone, no carrier lock and unlocked/s-off, and they reduce my bill accordingly.
Just remember, they use OUR airwaves, and now are abusing the legal system to hold us hostage so they can profit. Pretty sure this is not legal.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
5l4Y said:
I don't like such politics. I want devices free!!!
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Free to unlock our own phones/tablets!! :good: Totally agree!!
Yep, let's get this signed
Sent from my Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk 2.

new law concerning phone unlocking

Since the DCMA law for unlocking phones is going into effect tomorrow, what do you guys think about it.. i personally think since we pay for the phone we should be able to do as we please with it, even if we get the subsudized price. Thoughts?
i share your opinion and i just want to share this petition with you register and sign against it!!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7
Even if you do sign. Congress can still redo the vote. Would recommend watching QBKing's video on the topic.
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Cell Phone Unlocking Petition (Whitehouse.gov)

For those of you who don't know, cell phone unlocking is illegal for phones bought from a carrier after Jan 26! We haven't had this restriction for the past few years but the exemption expired and unlocking is no longer legal in some cases.
I believe that people should be allowed to use the hardware they paid for as they wish, so please sign the petition in order to receive an official response from the White House. Only 3 days left to sign the petition. (By signing the petition you're requesting an official response from the Obama administration)
http://wh.gov/yA9n
EDIT
We got an official response supporting cell phone unlocking! Huge thanks to everyone who signed!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/its-time-legalize-cell-phone-unlocking
In the home stretch, only 3640 signatures needed by the 23 at this point. Spread this far and wide. It is BS that unlocking needed a DMCA exception which requires renewal in the first place......
Don't know how I misses this earlier. Thanks FB. I'll post a link in the Skyrocket forums as well.
hechoen said:
Don't know how I misses this earlier. Thanks FB. I'll post a link in the Skyrocket forums as well.
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same here in the herc section when i get home from work.
sent from within the white knight
Well that was fast... 3 hours after that 3.6k post, it was only 1.2k left. Now it's passed the limit... extra sigs always help though.
I think I had pissed off many of my friends on facebook because I would post this every day.
i hope it becomes legal now becouse i travel a lot and i gotta switch carriers:laugh:
i signed btw when it first started
We got an official response supporting cell phone unlocking! Huge thanks to everyone who signed!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/its-time-legalize-cell-phone-unlocking
F.C.C. Backs Consumers in Unlocking of Cellphones
A bill is in the works.
http://m.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/bill-legalize-phone-unlocking-way-says-senator-1C8709826
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Awesome yaayy
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Uuuugghhh !!!!!!

Iam so sick of samsung and/or carriers locking our phones down. I was going to buy a GN3, and now think I might just keep my POS rooted but NO RECOVERY !!!! ATT GS4. If its this bad with the gs4 imagine how difficult the GN3 is going to be. Had to vent.
joewspot said:
Iam so sick of samsung and/or carriers locking our phones down. I was going to buy a GN3, and now think I might just keep my POS rooted but NO RECOVERY !!!! ATT GS4. If its this bad with the gs4 imagine how difficult the GN3 is going to be. Had to vent.
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You could always try to grab a T-Mobile or Sprint variant since they will most likely be unlocked, but yea sad to say as much as I want a Note 3 now, it's going to be locked and locked down hard :/
I've been thinking about just give n the difference I should have paid for my phone to the bounty for bootloader unlock. I paid 200$ so I was thinking of put n 300$ in on the bounty .maybe if everybody did this it might help.
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As the world turns.
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joewspot said:
Iam so sick of samsung and/or carriers locking our phones down. I was going to buy a GN3, and now think I might just keep my POS rooted but NO RECOVERY !!!! ATT GS4. If its this bad with the gs4 imagine how difficult the GN3 is going to be. Had to vent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I did was buy a Sim unlocked device from a carrier who's boot loader can be broken and just transfer it to your personal carrier
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium
This is why Google releases Nexus devices. Technically most carrier devices aren't even meant for development unless noted. Development phones are provided with unlocked or unlockable bootloaders. They are under absolutely no obligation to provide you such feature with a non-development device. Quit your whining child.
Here is a possible solution...chat with an att rep, tell them that ur going abroad and need it unlocked..they will most likely provide it for you..unlock it and sell it to get about 500$ ish.. Buy a i9500 or something online like eBay and be set..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
chaosclarity said:
This is why Google releases Nexus devices. Technically most carrier devices aren't even meant for development unless noted. Development phones are provided with unlocked or unlockable bootloaders. They are under absolutely no obligation to provide you such feature with a non-development device. Quit your whining child.
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If someone pays $500-$600 for a phone, they should be able to do with it as they wish. AT&T should just warn the buyer that bricked phones will not be warrantied and leave the bootloader as it was. But they chose to push an OTA update, with a locked bootloader, to our phones. That was a real B***h move on their part.
gj23 said:
If someone pays $500-$600 for a phone, they should be able to do with it as they wish. AT&T should just warn the buyer that bricked phones will not be warrantied and leave the bootloader as it was. But they chose to push an OTA update, with a locked bootloader, to our phones. That was a real B***h move on their part.
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Click to collapse
No one said he couldn't unlock the bootloader - everything is crack-able. Just because it's locked doesn't mean he can't unlock it, in theory. He just needs the brains to do so.
That's like buying a new car and saying, "uggh wtf! The turbo should be running 30psi, not 10!!"... you pay some money to a tuner, and bam.. it's faster now. Same goes with a locked phone - there are devs out there that can do this - I'm sure for the right price they'll put in the work and unlock it.
Effing people expect life to be served on a silver platter to them and on top it, to be free. Grow up!
Oh look, another one of these threads...
Here is the reason why they do this.
They want government contracts. The government 'DoD' specifically is choosing Android over iOS because iOS more closed down than Android even with locked bootloaders. They have to show really good security. Making something this hard to break shows that security.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
chaosclarity said:
This is why Google releases Nexus devices. Technically most carrier devices aren't even meant for development unless noted. Development phones are provided with unlocked or unlockable bootloaders. They are under absolutely no obligation to provide you such feature with a non-development device. Quit your whining child.
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Click to collapse
Well someone here doesn't understand what the Open Handset Alliance / Android was all about and feels like they are holier than thou
Sent from my Galaxy S4 i337m
MavereXx said:
Well someone here doesn't understand what the Open Handset Alliance / Android was all about and feels like they are holier than thou
Sent from my Galaxy S4 i337m
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Click to collapse
Ok, whatever. I don't care.
I guess you havent done your research before opening your ignorant mouth.....some of the best developers have spent countless hours on this bootloader and have stated that without a leak or Samsung tool, its not going to happen. So, I guess it would be like buying a car and without the permission from the auto maker, you couldnt do anything to that car.....idiot!
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gj23 said:
I guess you havent done your research before opening your ignorant mouth.....some of the best developers have spent countless hours on this bootloader and have stated that without a leak or Samsung tool, its not going to happen. So, I guess it would be like buying a car and without the permission from the auto maker, you couldnt do anything to that car.....idiot!
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Click to collapse
Please refrain from name calling.
Now, AT&T owns the bootloaders. They are not open source. They make Google implement them on our devices because they are Google's client/customer. Google has to abide by what their clients want or they will lose that client. Since the bootloaders are not open source, AT&T is not obligated by any means be it themselves or through Google to unlock or provide a way to unlock the bootloaders. Furthermore, AT&T can afford to lose the few customers that care about bootloaders being unlocked or unlockable because what they lose in public customer revenue, they will more than make up for in private government contracts. They know this and have compensated for it.
Should they handle it differently? Yes. But they will not lose much of anything if they keep it as is.
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The developers on XDA arena amazing and almost always find a solution. I wouldn't worry about having it customizable. I'm thinking of a note 3 myself but the convenience of recording is too good to give up for now. I love not having to write things down and at the press of one button be able to get the information
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