Warez Vs. Tethering

[crazychef]

Originally Posted by gmfeny

HAHA Im an alcoholic and alcohol is a drug and should be illegal... But Im gonna keep drinking it and Im gonna fight crime at the same time... sry for real this time im done

but see your mad at me for doing just that.. breaking the rules and fighting for them at the same time... thats all im doing here..

thanks, i tthink that get me out of our arguement... sorry had to take a small poke back after you big, last response lol.. its all in fun, i want no enemies here

[kennyidaho]

Originally Posted by crazychef

my point is valid and irrefutable..

Has any legal precedence been established for this matter? Has any court of law confirmed that it is in fact illegal to connect my phone to my computer and use the services the phone and plan I purchased provides?

Right now I believe it's a gray area, much like freely distributing modified copies of the Windows Mobile operating system, or engineering software that unlocks phones so that the modified copies of Windows Mobile can be placed on your phone.

[crazychef]

Originally Posted by kennyidaho

Has any legal precedence been established for this matter? Has any court of law confirmed that it is in fact illegal to connect my phone to my computer and use the services the phone and plan I purchased provides?

Right now I believe it's a gray area, much like freely distributing modified copies of the Windows Mobile operating system, or engineering software that unlocks phones so that the modified copies of Windows Mobile can be placed on your phone.

um this isnt a court, and ur unlimited data isnt included in that fashion if u read terms of service.. and if we want to be technically anytime someone breaches a contract, its breaking the law, maybe not criminal law(depends on the type of contract), but civil law.. OJ wasnt convicted of 7 counts in a criminal court when he murdered 2 people, but he sure the hell was found guilty on all counts in a civil case now wasnt he...

and since when can u freely distribute copies of windows OS and software?? and phones are allowed to be unlocked, u can even buy them that way.. your not allowed to unlock them and jump carriers, without the appropriate avenues being taken.. and roms arent an issue, its not something were suppose to be paying for to upgrade on.. only if they offered ones we could buy, and then ported that over for everyone else... even with the HD, the UI isnt really any different, and wasnt promoted to be anything other than 6.1, with tf3d just like alot of things, so thats not a paid upgrade we should have needed to pay for and didnt...

i mean look, the 6.5 that was floatin around here, was gettin too good for the people at MS, look what happened... that was in their eyes giving something of theirs away for free.. crossed the line i guess.. but if u wanna be technical romming would be bad, every says oh "this is MY rom here" but you have liscened app and progs in there especial all those pretty MS logos and copyrights all over em.. if you charged someone, your disrbuting warez arent you? its not really yours, you merely glued the pieces together didnt you? i know tons of things are freeware, but youtubes, MS office things, hell just the fact yu can goto, settings>system>about> and see the name MICROSOFT in 'YOUR ROM' makes it legally questionable...

but hey rom away...ive seen some great work(screenshots) from u guys.. i dont however flash either.. but keep it up, especially if u can ruffle the feathers of lame B.G. at MS lol

[lattisimo]

is it really a matter of legality? Or is it more a mater of consiquence?

a lot of things we do here could be questionably legal. as kenny mentioned "legal precedence" is there any. i don't know or care if there is or isn't. all i care about is are our actions going to bring any negative consequence to ppcgeeks. they are responsible for our actions. the warez is banned because that opens a door that has legal precedence for those software companies to sue ppcgeeks. that is the last thing i want the great people that make all this possible to have to deal with.

as far as tethering, there is no pressidence, at the moment, and it is not cost effective for the service providers to pursue it. there is a 5GB cap whether you have PAM or not. the real reason they charge you $40 a month for PhoneAsModem is for the technical support. it cost them a lot more to train and pay someone to support the additional hardware (laptop/desktop). that $40 makes it so that you can call them when it doesn't work. And, i know that no one here is going to call sprint for technical support so they can get there laptop on the internet. that is what we do for each other.

now if there comes a day when there may be repercussions for this great community then at that time i think the activity should be banned but, until then, i think we should keep doing what we are doing. Lets help each other get the most out of great WM devices.

BTW,

i tether and don't pay for it.
i use warez and don't pay for it.
i torrent and don't pay for it.
i smoke pot, but i pay for it.
i do many other things that are not legal.

but as long as the only one that is responsible for it is me... then i am going to keep doing it.

and if you wanna do something "Illegal" and it will not hurt someone else. then i say, "Do It" lol

if you get caught then it is your consequence and no one else.

[kennyidaho]

When you download a ROM for your phone you are downloading a copy of the operating system (distribution). A lot of times a different build then the one that came on your phone. Is it legal? I don't know is it legal to download a copy of Windows XP if you already have a legit key? Does the licensee I have to use Windows Mobile on this phone include all builds and versions of windows mobile or just the one included with my phone? Who knows but I imagine the axe would fall on the side of this type of activity is illegal. (Thankfully Microsoft & HTC seem to turn a blind eye to it for the most part which is good for them in a way)

Unlocking - I am not talking about GSM unlocking. I am talking about boot loader unlocking. To load said custom rom onto the phone you need a hacked boot loader. Why? Because the boot loader included with the phone is desgined in away to prevent any unauthorized ROMS to be loaded. So is that is another gray area.

The touch HD UI issue or foot prints or anything else. Well see HTC designed that software for that particular phone. It's part of their business model. Make phone - add cool software - people buy new phone to get new features. So yes you can look at it as a paid upgrade. If they wanted you to have it they would have made a version for your phone which you could download from their site. They didn't now did they?

Sprint is aware of the ICS hack. They have to be. We know they look at this site...fools post about it on BAW forums. If they wanted to do something about it they would have already. They would have sent cease and desist orders; like palm did regarding its threaded text messagine software. They apparently do not seem to care to much. So why worry.

The way I look at it if your going to ***** and moan about ICS then you better start talking about all the other stuff (ROMS,BOOTLOADERS, ETC). My best advice for you is frankly just to shut up. When you get your law degree and still feel like ridding the world of all evils like ICS then you'll have the appropriate resources at that time - then you can go on with your crusade.

[newone757]

Originally Posted by crazychef

right, so thank you for pointing out that a warez is just a game/app/software until you dont pay for it.. and ics is just worthless and unusable without a "crack" or reg edit to trick the carrier

"but how can posting the free program itself be illegal??" because the Free prgram isnt being posted, the "crack' for it is

I was reffereing to "ICS Control", which is 100% free non commercial software. ICS control is only GUI to make it easier to control a compnent of windows mobile , internet connection sharing. pefectly legal to distribute ICS


as far as posting wmwifi router, yes i agree that is warez

[TreyBeno]

Oh for crying out loud. The tethering hack, cracks, and wares are all theft of services. If all rules were all enforced in the same manner then it would be banned from the site. If sprint made a fuss like microsoft is trying to do about its 6.5 leaks, then it would probably be pulled too. Just like shazaam wanted ppcgeeks to pull the music id program. I also find it very weak of others to bash the Op for stating his opinion. This is a forum and thats his right to do so. Especially since he seems to shoot down most comers with logic and sense. I dont use the ics HACK or wmwifirouter or whatever its called. As a matter of fact im probably gonna go with the evrything plus broadband plan es well from sprint. Its just all about common perception. Everybody knows that alcohol is just as addictive and mind altering, and causes just as many or more problems as hard drugs do. Alcohol is probably the greatest drug on the planet but since its commonly accepted it doesnt get labeled as a drug. The same goes for weed. Most people dont care about it and think of it in the same light as alcohol but its illegal. I mean alcohol is a mind altering drug that has no medicinal value just like weed. And many people should stick to the topic as well. I see alot of people with weak arguements trying to get off topoic and bash the OP. Lets chill on that people. Its not about why he was banned or what he does for a living. Its about applying the same set of rules to ALL programs. The ics HACK is just like a wares if its a paid service that youre cheating to use.

[Dr.8820]

this is interesting reading...

[schettj]

Is it theft of service though?

You pay for internet. It's not like ICS gets you access to internet if you don't pay for internet.

All it does is let you use that internet you pay for on a different bit of hardware.

I can browse and check email on my phone. I can do the same thing with my phone tethered to my laptop.

Sprint (for example) has a PAM plan, it has smart phones, and it used to have fairly dumb phones that could access the internet.

If you had a dumb phone and started using it tethered, you could conceivably use significantly more bandwidth then just using the phone itself. This was back in '00-06 range.

Today, with sprint tv freely included with every internet plan on every device capable of internet, its entirely possible to burn gigabytes of bandwidth right on your dumbphone just by watching sprint tv.

Likewise, with a smartphone, you can download massive files (I've got plenty of room here on my 4GB card, and download clients for every major protocol) and then move that card from your "phone" to your laptop.

So PAM remains as some weird appendix, mostly as a backup stick to be used to smack the truly insane should they run a porn distribution ring off their vision service (I can only assume...)

You're not stealing a service, you are violating your terms of service without PAM.

That is a different beast then warez (stealing software)

Bottom line (for sprint) if you buy a TP and plug it into a windows box, even *without* launching ICS, it will share the internet to the windows box. It does the same with a linux box (Ubuntu 8.10) - all STOCK, as SHIPPED.

Nothing hacked, nothing changed, nothing installed.

Sprint knows the same either way that you're doing it, and violating your TOS.

But is that the same as cracking (or downloading a cracked copy of) photoshop? Downloading some mp3 music? A TV show? a Movie? Nope. You'll be breaking a law for those. Violation of your TOS is between you and the service provider, not between you and a court of law.

No one ever has been legally found guilty in a court of law of violation of PAM TOS. They (maybe) have had their vision service or entire phone service revoked - that's the right of the service provider if you don't play by their rules.

[TreyBeno]

its probably more like denying them the right to charge per device for using their service. Kind of licensing a device to be on their service as they dont sell the computers. Or it may be due to them only taking the liability for what they sell.