Most consumers aren't particularly thrilled with the idea that their phone carrier charges them an extra fee to enable tethering functionality already built into their smartphones by default. As a result many users jailbreak their phones, a practice that's been declared perfectly legal. It's something AT&T's been trying to crack down on by sending warning letters to unsanctioned tethered users -- insisting they'll be upgraded to a more expensive data plan if they don't stop. ZDNet's James Kendrick offers up a spirited bit of troll bait, arguing that anybody who unofficially tethers is a thief:Even other ZDNet columnists appear not to agree. Granted, many consumers see the carriers as the thieves -- crippling devices and erecting new barriers in order to add additional fees to already very expensive mobile data plans. It's not like these users are running away with the store; a new AT&T mobile smartphone user who doesn't sign up for a mobile hotspot faces a maximum 2 GB cap, after which he pays a stunning $10 per gigabyte.

What constitutes thievery seems to fluctuate quickly; it was only a few years ago that Verizon Wireless insisted that anyone who used a mobile hotspot to share a 3G connection over Wi-Fi was getting wireless data service for free.