Cell-phone wise, that is indeed the case (a FCC rule). From PCWorld: :
Enchanced 911
Mobile phone companies are under orders from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to incorporate some kind of location-reporting technology into cellular phones. Dubbed E-911, or enhanced 911, the communication initiative is meant to give law enforcement and emergency services personnel a way to find people calling 911 from mobile phones when callers don't know where they are or are unable to say.
No carrier was able to make an October deadline to fully implement E-911. The FCC issued waivers permitting carriers to add location-detection services to new phones over time, so that 95 percent of all mobile phones are compliant with E-911 rules by 2005.
More details from Wikipedia:
Requirements
The U.S. Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) has several
requirements applicable to wireless or
mobile telephones:
- Basic 911: All 911 calls must be relayed to a call center, regardless
of whether the mobile phone user is a
customer of the network being used.
- E911 Phase 1: Wireless network operators must identify the phone
number and cell phone tower used by
callers, within six minutes of a
request by a PSAP.
- E911 Phase 2
95% of a network operator's in-service phones must be E911
compliant ("location capable") by
December 31, 2005. (Several carriers
missed this deadline, and were fined
by the FCC.)
Wireless network operators must provide the latitude and
longitude of callers within 300
meters, within six minutes of a
request by a PSAP. Accuracy rates
must meet FCC standards on average
within any given participating PSAP
service area by September 11, 2012
(deferred from September 11, 2008).
Location information is not only
transmitted to the call center for the
purpose of sending emergency services
to the scene of the incident, it is
used by the wireless network operator
to determine to which PSAP to route
the call.
Please note that GPS specifically is NOT required - merely some means of location. Wikipedia again:
To locate a mobile telephone
geographically, there are two general
approaches. One is to use some form of
radiolocation from the cellular
network, and the other is to use a Global
Positioning System receiver built into
the phone itself. Both approaches are
described by the Radio resource
location services protocol (LCS protocol).
NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, there are no similar rules for laptops, since they are done for 911 purposes and laptops aren't very suitable for that purpose due to low # of people owning them. So there's no point.
modern laptops. Such, that have GPS installed? ;) Don't have law-databases you could search? Or look for some vendor who sells Laptops without GPS. And why shouldn't the thief deaktivate it? And even if the Laptop can tell where it is, how does it prevent crime? You mean it should automatically report where it is? To whom? It would need some kind of Mobile Network as well. At least in Europe, this is often via an USB-Device. – user unknown Jul 21 '11 at 2:20