so I finally read this thing and I must admit I wouldn't mind if phones were unable to be rooted. I mean yeah I like being able to root my phone, change theme's, ROM's, and so on. But I dont care about tethering....pretty much anything my laptop can do my Droid 2 can do as well. So no need to tether. In addition ever since I rooted my phone I have thoughts of just going back to stock and being done with it.
This is not, nor has it ever been about tethering. If it was, they would have pulled the apps from the Market and put a stop to it with a simple software update, or throttled people who were obviously tethering.
To all of you condemning tethering, stop it. If you are rooted for any reason, you have ZERO room to point fingers. None.
You violated your ToS as much as anyone that tethers.
The joke is on you, as you feel that you are somehow "above" the people that tether, because they are stealing while you are not. False. You are stealing as well, by removing the bloat and crap that someone paid Verizon to put and KEEP on there. You are stealing when you install an app for free, that gives you a feature that Verizon charges for. You are stealing when you return your phone, knowing that the warranty was void the second you rooted it.
The bottom line, is that VZW is not going after tetherers. They are going after ROOTERS. They will cite tethering because that helps them justify going after rooters in general, because in their eyes, it is rooting that ENABLES tethering. And removing bloat. And installing apps that VZW would rather charge you for. Etc...
They do not care if you personally never tethered, they really don't. What they care about is that if you root, then you have the ABILITY to tether, or remove the bloat, etc... Whether you do it or not is irrelevant, merely being rooted allows you those options, and they do not want you to have those options, period.
So whether you tether or not, you should be against this whole thing. Because if you just root to theme your phone and improve battery life, you are being judged GUILTY of tethering/removing bloat and all the rest, just because you have the potential to do those things.
That is no different that accusing someone of drunk driving, simply because they have a car and beer at home. Just because I have the ability to get drunk and drive, doesn't mean that I am doing it. So locking me up because the potential is there, is morally and legally wrong.
Just as taking away guns from the 80 million or so legal gun owners in the US, who on average have less than 0.005% of them commit violent crimes with those guns, would be wrong, simply because having the gun would ENABLE them to commit the crimes. The fact is, the majority of them are not, so proclaiming them guilty simply because they have the MEANS to do it, is wrong.
That's what this is about. They want to control the phones, so that they can control the content and increase fees. In order to do that, they need to eliminate the ability to root.
They will cite tethering and some other things that have some degree of merit, but they are not really interested in that. It's a means to an end.
It's an argument to get people on board with what their real goal is; To control content and increase fees.
So I don't care if you tether or not. It's a moot argument. If you root, for any reason, you are just as guilty in VZW's eyes. You are not better than a tetherer, and it gets annoying to see some of you pretend to be.
It would be like I am sitting in a holding cell for reckless driving, and you are looking down your nose at me, while you yourself are in the same cell for buying weed. You(the general term) come off as a hypocrite.
