Kid that better not be a jailbroken phone. (Photo: blogcdn.com)

At the end of January, it became technically illegal for you to unlock your phone without your carrier's permission, even if your contract had expired. The call was made by the Librarian of Congress, who (for some reason) oversees exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and decided that cellphone unlockers would no longer get a pass.

This didn't sit well with righteous nerds and startup folks, and so a San Francisco man named Sina Khanifar started collecting signatures on the White House's petition platform, pleading that the Obama administration "ask the Librarian of Congress to rescind this decision, and failing that, champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal." The petition reached 114,322 signatures, obligating the administration to respond.

That response came today. It's titled, "It's Time to Legalize Cell Phone Unlocking," and it's pretty full-throated in its support:

If you have paid for your mobile device, and aren't bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be able to use it on another network. It's common sense, crucial for protecting consumer choice, and important for ensuring we continue to have the vibrant, competitive wireless market that delivers innovative products and solid service to meet consumers' needs.

Of course, there's really not all that much the White House can do, except call on other parties to do something:

We look forward to continuing to work with Congress, the wireless and mobile phone industries, and most importantly you -- the everyday consumers who stand to benefit from this greater flexibility -- to ensure our laws keep pace with changing technology, protect the economic competitiveness that has led to such innovation in this space, and offer consumers the flexibility and freedoms they deserve.

The White House says they've even support "narrow legislative fixes," but let's face it, getting Congress to cooperate isn't going so great.

But that doesn't seem to phase Mr. Khanifar, who has undertaken the broader goal of fixing the DMCA itself. He told Betatbeat in a statement,

While I think this is wonderful, I think the real culprit here is Section 1201 of the DMCA, the controversial "anti-circumvention provision." I discussed with the White House the potential of pushing to have that provision amended or removed, and they want to continue that conversation. I'll have exciting news on the campaign to make this happen tomorrow.

He also tweeted that he'd be "Launching a website tomorrow to campaign for fixing the DMCA properly. Will see what happens!"

Just spitballing here, but we're guessing what'll happen is the glacially paced federal government will test Mr. Khanifer's patience to its very limits.

(Photo: WhiteHouse.gov)

After a slew of stupid petitions cluttered the White House's official petition platform We the People, the administration has decided to raise the bar for the amount of signatures required to elicit a White House response. Now, instead of 25,000 signatures (a number easily attainable by Redditors and 4chan enthusiasts), a petition will require 100,000 signatures in order to garner a response.

The White House is too polite to admit that this is largely because they had to take time to write a response to a petition about building a Death Star, and instead argues that We the People has seen explosive growth recently, and it makes sense to raise the signature bar accordingly:

"In the last two months of 2012, use of We the People more than doubled. In just that time roughly 2.4 million new users joined the system, 73,000 petitions were created and 4.9 million signatures were registered....Most petitions that crossed the threshold collected 25,000 signatures within five days of their creation. More than 60 percent of the petitions to cross threshold in all of 2012 did so in the last two months of the year."

This isn't the first time the White House has upped the ante: previously they raised the signature requirement from 5,000 to 25,000.

Our sincerest condolences to Pokemon enthusiasts.

(Photo: DeviantArt)

This morning a petition on the White House's official petition portal, We the People, began circulating across the web that asked the government to consider assigning each state a Pokemon character to represent it. It received under 1,000 signatures, but delighted swaths of "'90s ubernerds" nostalgic for a time when trading Pokemon cards on the playground was the most emotionally-fraught adventure of the day.

But a few hours after news of the petition broke, the White House yanked it from We the People, claiming that it violated the site's Terms of Participation. We have to assume recognizing a state Pokemon is not exactly high up on the administration's lengthy list of priorities.

Though there are some worthwhile petitions on We the People, many Internet users have glommed on to the tool as an act of trolling. And who can blame them, really? Come up with some outrageous idea, spread it around via social networks, and bam--it can't be that hard to get 25,000 signatures on a jokey petition. And who says millennials are politically disengaged?

"Are kids getting stoned and signing petitions now?" wondered one Betabeat writer. "Yay for engagement but go find a light show."

To be fair, the White House hasn't exactly discouraged this sort of behavior. Last week, the administration released a hilarious response to a petition to build a Death Star which, while absolutely delightful, was probably not the best use of government time?

(Photo: Eye on Star Wars)

Less than a week ago, only 7,000 people had signed the White House petition urging the president to begin building a Death Star, the space station/superweapon from Star Wars, by 2016. Now, with a little help from 4chan, the petition has passed the 25,000 signature threshold it needs to be reviewed by the White House.

John D. of Longmont, Colorado, spearheaded the petition, arguing:

By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

We suppose it's not the worst national security plan we've ever encountered.

The petition will now be placed into a queue to be reviewed by the White House, which will email each signer with a response once they've finished reading it.

Now if only we could harness all this political interest for a cause the White House might actually take seriously (lol).

Beer Me Storied New York venture capital firm Lerer Ventures knows its target audience. According to a tweet from Scoutmob cofounder Dave Payne, Lerer is hosting a beer pong tournament for some of the companies it has invested in. "just got invited to a beer pong tourney by one of our venture investors," tweeted Mr. Payne. "that's hard core @lererventures. well done."

Competition at the tournament seems like it will be quite fierce. "hope you've been practicing," responded Northeastern student Scott Edelstein. "i've seen@benjlerer win with his eyes closed."

In fact, here's proof:

(Photo: Twitter)

Twitter Tempest There's no beef like a Twitter beef. Exhibit A: This week's digital bar brawl between erstwhile TechCrunch writer Paul Carr (now EIC of NSFW Corporation) and current TechCrunch writer Ryan Lawler.

The opening salvo came from Mr. Carr: "This is the dumbest thing I've read on TechCrunch all hour," he tweeted, pointing to a post uncritically touting some stats from Airbnb. Told, "at least it wasn't a slideshow," Mr. Carr responded: "it would have been had Airbnb sent a slideshow." It might've stayed there, had Mr. Lawler (the author of the piece) not leapt into the fray and gone nuclear. "I wish I could build a career on my own drunkenness and self loathing," he rejoined. Oh, dear.

The back and forth that ensued was collected by the parody account @NextTechBlog and given the title of, "Utterly Embarrassing Interpersonal Shit-Show In Front Of Everyone." And Start-ups: Silicon Valley star Kim Taylor knew her opening when she saw it: "Season 2 of #SiliconValley: Self important tech reporters argue on twitter like 12 year old girls."

Diwali, D.C. Style LocalResponse founder Nihal Mehta spent some time in Washington D.C. this week. But instead of snapping pics at the Lincoln Memorial or going bar hopping in Adams Morgan like your typical D.C. visitor, Mr. Mehta attended the White House's official Diwali celebration. "current status: in the @whitehouse eating a samosa after mtg the first hindu congresswoman @tulsigabbard after #diwalipuja w/@joebiden," Mr. Mehta tweeted. If that doesn't trigger your FOMO sensibilities, he then followed it up with a photo of Vice President Biden lighting the Diwali Diya. Baller status: unlocked.

(Photo: Twitter)

Interpersonal Fitness Adventures in Timehop: Seven years ago, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley gave all his friends pedometers, "in an attempt to make a poor man's NikeFuel." No word on whether it worked.

Sadface Tumblr ad man Rick Webb shared the below photo--on his Tumblr, natch--depicting a rather deserted-looking Microsoft store. Given that it opened just a few weeks ago, and that the holidays are approaching, shouldn't it be slightly more crowded? Poor Steve Ballmer. "This would be comical if it wasn’t so sad," Mr. Webb offered.

(Photo: Tumblr)

Ayndroids Among Us It seems tech world conscience (and 2012 Tech Insurgent!) Anil Dash had quite the interesting conversation recently. "Odd FB exchange with a founder who says 80% of U.S. are worthless & just take," he tweeted, adding that he "Blocked me when I asked why his homepage doesn't say that." Unfortunately, Mr. Dash didn't reveal the unnamed founder's identity, other than to clarify it wasn't a Facebooker and he'd started "a few companies." Perhaps we'll just dub this mystery man John Galt, which would surely delight him to no end.

As always: Overheard a juicy tidbit about impending departures or imminent acquisitions? Dying to dish about startup blunders or frothy financing? Holler at your girls: tips@betabeat.com We’ve also implemented an anonymous tip box for you covert tipsters out there; you can find it on the top-right corner of our homepage.

Naturally, the bill will take web companies' interests into account as well:

The President’s privacy framework assures that as new Internet services develop privacy rules will keep up with, and not hamper, the pace of innovation. This framework takes advantage of the flexibility of self-regulatory processes but assures that new codes of conduct are guided by a comprehensive, forward-looking set of privacy principles and that all interested parties such as consumer advocates have a voice in the process.

CNET noted that this bill coincides with growing criticism of giant companies like Google for their lax protection of individual consumers' online privacy. That's why the portion of the White House announcement detailing the meaning of "Individual Control" may make the more staunch privacy advocates suspicious: "Companies should provide consumers appropriate control over the personal data that consumers share with others and over how companies collect, use, or disclose personal data." (Emphasis added.)

Skeptics of the strength of the bill may ask: who determines what is "appropriate?"

Mr. Gerber.

Yesterday a new $10 million early stage seed investment fund called Gen Y Capital Partners launched out of its home base in New York City.

Its no coincidence that the White House's announcement about easing student loan burdens for entrepreneurs came on the same day. After all part of Gen Y Capital's business plan, which gets name-checked in the White House release, leverages the recently-reformed Income-Based Repayment plan to help startup founders pay off their student loans. Yup, you read that right. Pay off, not defer.

Betabeat talked to Gen Y founder Scott Gerber, author of Never Get a "Real" Job and founder of the non-profit Young Entrepreneur Council, about how student loans play into entrepreneurship and why Gen Y can help the 99 percent.

Mr. Gerber said the notion for the for-profit fund, which is financed by private and institutional investors, started a year ago. "The YEC and I have literally spoken to thousands of 20-something college students asking them what were the barriers to entries. The top three were: college student debt, the fact that they were being turned into boomerangs--ended up going home and living on their parents, which is very unsupportive and that they had no access to capital or real mentorship." Removing those barriers, he reasoned, would make a capital infusion more effective.

Income-based Repayment, or IBR, is a federal program that anyone can apply to that defers or lessens student loans depending on income level. "So if the founders we select subscribe to IBR and still have student loan debt, we will basically pay down the remainder of the debts for three years until they hit zero. That way they remove them from the equation and they can fully concentrate," said Mr. Gerber. "We’re actually making the payments. And that’s not part of the equity investment that we make, that’s a service we offer to our founders."

It will likely take Gen Y three years to deploy the capital. Mr. Gerber said the average investment will be between $15,000 and $50,000, but "in very select opportunities," the fund may invest up to $250,000. In addition, the founders selected by Gen Y will have access to YEC members, which includes the founders of Reddit, Mint, and Living Social, for mentorship and potential co-investment alongside Gen Y. Mentors are divided into verticals so it depends on the interest of the members as to whether they want to invest.

The association with President Obama started because for the past several months YEC has been championing something called the Youth Entrepreneurship Act on both the Hill and in White House meetings. "It would take IBR to a totally other level, which is student debt forgiveness and deferment, which would theoretically would be the absolute next step of how IBR would work if we had our way!," Mr. Gerber enthused.

The public-private partnership only extends to IBR, there is no government money in Gen Y's $10 million fund. The new IBR reforms let students making $20,000 or less defer payments until they get to a higher revenue grade. "So for startups that's amazing because it allows them to have more operating and startup capital, because the money they do have is not just being dumped into loan repayments." As your income rises, payments fluctuate up to a cap of 10 percent of income. The reform works by extending your federal student loan from 10 years to 20 years. Anything after that gets forgiven entirely, explained Mr. Gerber.

Where does the 99 percent come in? "We think that folks like Y Combinator and TechStars do an incredible job of getting the best most sophisticated tech elite out there. We don't just want to do a third version of that. So instead we're going after companies that are certainly enabled by tech or assisted by tech, but are not straight-up tech businesses," he explained. Rather, Gen Y would look for businesses that are scaleable and provide value. "But they are companies that would be overlooked by incubators or startup accelerators." As an example of a potential Gen Y contender, Mr. Gerber offered a customizable granola bar company where items would be ordered through a website using a process the founders built.

We're not sure whether the Occupy Wall Street movement would be sold on Mr. Gerber's "build a job to keep a job" motto. But long before protesters started camping out in Zuccotti Park, Mr. Gerber has been a talking head on cable news discussing unemployment and underemployment rates for young people in America.

"I believe personally that in this day and age the economy has fundamentally changed everything," said Mr. Gerber. "We cannot go back to data of decades past because everything has changed—globalization, automation, recession—all these things have dramatically impacted to the point where we’re seeing Wall Street demonstrations. If we can begin to change the mindset and let this be less of a handout society and let this be less of thinking somebody owes you something and change the mindset so that young people feel engaged and ready to be activated that will enable them to not just take out their frustrations on the street, but take it out by doing something about it and building America themselves."

Spoken like a serial entrepreneur. Now if only someone would address the ills of Generation Catalano.