To help crackdown on the number of untrained and often unlicensed locksmiths running around California, an amendment to the Assembly Bill 2592 was passed in March of 2008. Basically it lays out the guidelines for how a locksmith business can be run, advertised, and the services it can perform.
Performing locksmith work without a license can get you a $10,000 fine and a year in prison. As it states in the excerpt below:
6980.13. (a) Any person who violates any provision of this
chapter, or who conspires with another person to violate any
provision of this chapter, or who knowingly engages a nonexempt or
unlicensed locksmith, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a
fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in a
county jail for not more than one year, or by both that fine and
imprisonment, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
You can read the whole bill here:
Assembly Bill 2592