I have thought long and hard about this, and tried to put myself in the non rooted, wifi tether paying customers shoes. I used to think it was OK, and everyone did it. I did it, not that I ever used it much, but I did use free tether apps.
I am not going to be like the high mighty holy rollers calling people that use google's tether apps in the market to get free tether thieves. That is wrong, it is rude, and you may as well call google the grand master thief, and thank them by buying your next device that supports such an open ecosystem (not for long huh?) However, it is wrong. Manipulating the .bat mode of the radio to get free tether is a violation of TOS. That is it. When you cut the tag off your mattress back in the day, same thing, you violated some stupid law, and that didn't make you a criminal, and I bet that most people that tether, do so because it is so easy to get for free. No body is going out of their way to do it.
With that said, it is wrong, and I won't use, or support it. It is getting the Android community in hot watter with the carriers, and making it more difficult for us that JUST want to root to customize, to pay the price. I am disgusted with it actually, it isn't fair to ROOT users that some people abuse the TOS by violating their contracts. I am tired of seeing the threads and comments about how people are freaking out about loosing the ability to hack data from VZW. If you can't afford the hot-spot or the net, go to the library and quit pissing off big red. But I don't think you are a thief, just in an environment where stealing data is as easy as pie, and google has certainly looked the other way.
I love GB, and the Bionic is going to be nice for the 99% other of us that don't root. I won't use GB anymore because I can't use the hotspot app safely while paying the 20. I don't want a leaked OS that violates TOS. I am going back, and SBFing for now. I am taking a break from hacking/rooting because frankly, I have done all there is to do to my X and I am getting bored again.
I am letting my contract expire this summer, and whatever carrier has the best open nexus phone, I will happily buy there. I am not sure why P3Droid dropped this, but his article has at the very least sparked a roar in the community, and got us talking about it right? I think that article helps him sleep better too, as I am sure 90% of the people running GB would point the finger at him (when their service provider does confront them) when it was their own finger on the tether app, the whole time.
sure, warranty would be void. Quit worrying fellas.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram