So, IB and the rest of the street are acting illegally and violate agreements or is it perhaps that Bob's firm has been a little overzealous in all of this. Perhaps to the degree of being complicit and naive?
I don't know. I remember when I was interested in Lightspeed being asked to pay 6000$ so I turned to DTN IQFeed because they still charge the regular fees. It was a very bizarre situation, and there wasn't much information about it. I started to wonder if this bussiness was really over for good. No one knew much about it. Broker phone assistants don't know anything about this.
It would be really interesting to know why some firms where asked first. Maybe someone had to be first. Certainly, I'll stay clear of Lightspeed for the time being.