anyone actually knows what the old unlimited contract says about this?
How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
21–30 of 46 posts
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#22I'd like to see a proper source of this (other than Android Police / iPhone Download Blog). I have used MyWi without having any special settings for tethering (my provider doesn't supply those), and it worked just fine; it would be a bit silly to go through the trouble of setting up a hotspot and making sure you're actively routing the data to the 'wrong' APN. (Note that iPhone Download Blog is the one calling MyWi b…
Every good dealer knows that you don't cut off your customers' supply. You "work with" them, you send someone to break their legs for not paying, but you never cut them off. Seriously, wouldn't it always have been easier just to cut customers off to prevent things like astronomical texting overages? That would interfere with that beautiful revenue stream.
I think everyone here is only worried with the breaking of legs anyway.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#23A couple of years back, federal regulators (thanks to the efforts of EFF) declared that jailbreaking an IPhone is not illegal. Since then, Apple has stopped threatening users with jailbroken IPhones, and also, finding and patching new vulnerabilities that allow jailbreaking has become a moot point. In the same vein, has there ever been a verdict on the legality of unofficial (MyWi-like) tethering?
There's a huge difference between jailbreaking an iPhone, which the EFF established doesn't (necessarily) violate the DMCA, and breaking your contract by using services from AT&T that you're not paying for. The first means using something you bought and paid for in a way the manufacturer doesn't want you to. The second means using a service that the provider charges for, but you're not paying for. The law is never go…
quickly, explain how using data on my unlimited data plan is violating my contract.
the tethering plan is a facilitator fee since greedy apple agree to limit features.
it's just like buying an app instead of writing your own.
if you can get your own way of using data you pay for, good for you.
now, forcing you to pay a facilitation fee for something you already have, seems a little mob like.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#24A couple of years back, federal regulators (thanks to the efforts of EFF) declared that jailbreaking an IPhone is not illegal. Since then, Apple has stopped threatening users with jailbroken IPhones, and also, finding and patching new vulnerabilities that allow jailbreaking has become a moot point. In the same vein, has there ever been a verdict on the legality of unofficial (MyWi-like) tethering?
> patching new vulnerabilities that allow jailbreaking has become a moot point.
I'm not sure how moot. A few iPhone jailbreaks have exploited vulnerabilities that would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a user's device. So, while pretty handy for delivering a jailbreak payload, equally devastating were someone to decide they wanted to pilfer some address book content or damage system files.
I'd say patching such vulnerabilities is important, though the short-term jailbreak opportunities are nice. Apple also verifies a checksum of your OS installation to prevent you rolling back to old, vulnerable OS versions. So, legal or not, Apple isn't taking a nap on jailbreaking.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a huge difference between jailbreaking an iPhone, which the EFF established doesn't (necessarily) violate the DMCA, and breaking your contract by using services from AT&T that you're not paying for. The first means using something you bought and paid for in a way the manufacturer doesn't want you to. The second means using a service that the provider charges for, but you're not paying for. The law is never go…
> The (slightly) more interesting legal question might be whether AT&T could ask a prosecutor to bring criminal charges. My uninformed guess is they could, based on something like "theft of services." If I charged $20 a month for you to come fill up a one-gallon bucket any time you wanted from my well, and instead of a bucket you filled up a tanker truck, it would be theft plain and simple, because you'd knowingly be…
The problem is that they sold you "all the water you could carry" and then reneged when you pulled in with your truck (with the bucket they gave you duct-taped to the inlet with a hole in punched in the bottom).
Its a case of "wait! I didn't really mean all". Its the classic fat man at the buffet problem.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a huge difference between jailbreaking an iPhone, which the EFF established doesn't (necessarily) violate the DMCA, and breaking your contract by using services from AT&T that you're not paying for. The first means using something you bought and paid for in a way the manufacturer doesn't want you to. The second means using a service that the provider charges for, but you're not paying for. The law is never go…
Tethering isn't a service though. The service is the data transfer. Tethering is a feature of the phone (which you own, especially if out of contract). Here's a metaphor: Imagine if the water company charged you per gallon for water you used, but then added an additional charge for having a shower. Since you own plumbing fixtures to which the shower connects, and pay for every gallon, we would consider it unfair for…
You pay for the data you transfer. Tethering is simply an "unauthorized" (by the vendor) use of that data
Wait, does anyone charge a per-kilobyte data charge? I thought most plans either had unlimited data or some large cap.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a huge difference between jailbreaking an iPhone, which the EFF established doesn't (necessarily) violate the DMCA, and breaking your contract by using services from AT&T that you're not paying for. The first means using something you bought and paid for in a way the manufacturer doesn't want you to. The second means using a service that the provider charges for, but you're not paying for. The law is never go…
> The (slightly) more interesting legal question might be whether AT&T could ask a prosecutor to bring criminal charges. My uninformed guess is they could, based on something like "theft of services." If I charged $20 a month for you to come fill up a one-gallon bucket any time you wanted from my well, and instead of a bucket you filled up a tanker truck, it would be theft plain and simple, because you'd knowingly be…
Their theory is that you'll never use 2 GB on your phone alone, so if you want to tether, you'll actually use close to 2GB, and well, that's an extra charge, citizen.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#28A couple of years back, federal regulators (thanks to the efforts of EFF) declared that jailbreaking an IPhone is not illegal. Since then, Apple has stopped threatening users with jailbroken IPhones, and also, finding and patching new vulnerabilities that allow jailbreaking has become a moot point. In the same vein, has there ever been a verdict on the legality of unofficial (MyWi-like) tethering?
Jailbreaking was given a temporary exemption from the DMCA. That doesn't mean it's necessarily legal, nor does it mean that it doesn't violate the terms of the contract with your carrier.
Doesn't that explicitly mean it's legal? At least for the time of the exemption.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#29They'll find other ways i.e. looking at the UserAgent in any unsecured HTTP request would signal tethering
Not really. You could always write a browser app for iOS or Android that uses Firefox or Chrome's user agent to have servers return the full desktop version.
Re: How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones
#30They'll find other ways i.e. looking at the UserAgent in any unsecured HTTP request would signal tethering
Ah yes because it's impossible to spoof your user agent string be it with a 3rd party web browser on the iPhone or your desktop browser to match the iOS one.