Here we go again. The same company that started the whole bootloader locking nonsense is back in the spotlight for locking down yet another one of its phones. This time the victim is Verizon’s Droid 3. According to a forum manager over at Motorola, the Droid 3 does have a locked bootloader.

This is really not a surprise, since Motorola itself has said it plans to release (when carriers allow) unlocked phones towards the end of this year. But it is kind of sad to see Motorola (or Verizon) has decided to lock down a phone that used to be a community favorite. The Droid 3 joins a long list of Motorola phones that have a locked bootloader, including the Droid X, Droid X2, Droid 2, Photon 4G and Atrix 4G.

Meanwhile, HTC is moving in the opposite direction. The company has listened to the Android community and is working to make sure future and current devices have an unlocked bootloader. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why HTC devices are praised by most Android enthusiasts.

We hope Motorola gets its act together and starts supporting the Android community sooner rather than later. Until then, my guess is most of us will be looking elsewhere for our hacking/modding needs.