Originally Posted by Ian-Highlander

Whilst that's the case for rented modems, its not the case for all. Personally I own my modem, having been with NTL for years now I signed up back in the day when you got a discount for buying your own modem, I bought it through NTL (but not from them) and it is my property to do with as I please. Whilst I know that it would be no use to anyone that bought it, if I decided to sell it (which I wont because funnily enough I'm using it ) then I could perfectly legally sell it.

However I accept that the majority of the modems on sale on Ebay are ex rental ones that NTL have never bothered to pick back up from ex subscribers so "technically" those remain the property of NTL even though they will never want them back.