In my country (Mexico) there was a law for them to sell you unlocked phones/unlock them on request. The biggest company had you fill a stupid request and you couldn't fill it if you had your phone for less than X months, something which was not allowed by the law, that ceased after a series of complains to some branch of government made to "protect consumers"

Anyway, I wonder if AT&T is kind of going with it and saying yes we'll unlock it BUT as a way to kind of cheat on the law, or if the law really allows them to do that.

edit: I guess I forgot most people here have prepaid phones, so really I ignore if that was the case for phones on plans, too.