Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 293 posts

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#21

Post by tremon »

dev1ycan wrote: post #16
amiga386 wrote: post #6

Not Google's first rodeo. They pulled the same move in 2019: https://www.phoronix.com/news/WireGuard-Ejected-Play-Store This is why software should not be subjected to an "app store" type distribution system, where a monopolist retains absolute control of what software can run on your devices, and can capriciously deny distribution to developers for whatever reason it likes.

app stores always seemed dystopian to me

To me it's not really the concept of the app store that's dystopian, it's not that different from a deb or rpm repository. What is dystopian is the level of control the OS vendor maintains over the entire ecosystem.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#22

Post by Create »

999900000999 wrote: post #12
amiga386 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, not for much longer though: https://keepandroidopen.org/

Thanks for sharing. Everyone is speed running towards a future where you need a permit to write software. Try to run a binary that doesn’t have the right cert( or whatever it’s called on Windows) and you get a bunch of warnings. Even if Android is open , normal people will only use the App Store. I can imagine China forcing Apple to allow 3rd party installations of software one day . The EU did something where to my…

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html

This article appeared in the February 1997 issue of Communications of the ACM (Volume 40, Number 2).

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#23

Post by Conan_Kudo »

dataflow wrote: post #4

> Play billing "must not be used in cases where payments include … tax exempt donations" > Note: 501(c)(6) is a tax-exempt status; donations are not tax-deductible for the donor. Google's communications explicitly state "tax-exempt". Isn't it pretty obvious that the problem is the donations aren't tax-exempt, despite the organization being tax-exempt? Your note suggests you already understand this. Logically, the pay…

Yes, but unsurprisingly most people don't understand that distinction well enough.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#24

Post by NDlurker »

dataflow wrote: post #14
Flimm wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is making it increasingly difficult to freely install software from app stores that they don't control and tax. Quoting https://keepandroidopen.org : > Starting in 2027*, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID. > Every app and every device, worldwide, with no opt…

> Google's "escape hatch" is a trap door >> Wait 24 hours >> Pick "allow temporarily" (7 days) or "allow indefinitely Geez. I don't like what they're doing either but this fear-mongering is not helping your cause. So the "trap door" here is just that you can't buy a phone and immediately start loading apps from unverified developers onto it until 24h have passed? Of all the hills we could be dying on, that's the one…

I'm guessing you've never shown up to a foreign country without a phone. First thing I do after I get through customs is find the phone store.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#25

Post by shevy-java »

Every day Google commits to more Evil. How much more Evil can this world take from Google?

Also - all those monopoly-stores need to be broken up. It can not be that these mega-corporations continue to be protected by a selfish US government wanting to install monopolies globally.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#26

Post by shevy-java »

dataflow wrote: post #14
Flimm wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is making it increasingly difficult to freely install software from app stores that they don't control and tax. Quoting https://keepandroidopen.org : > Starting in 2027*, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID. > Every app and every device, worldwide, with no opt…

> Google's "escape hatch" is a trap door >> Wait 24 hours >> Pick "allow temporarily" (7 days) or "allow indefinitely Geez. I don't like what they're doing either but this fear-mongering is not helping your cause. So the "trap door" here is just that you can't buy a phone and immediately start loading apps from unverified developers onto it until 24h have passed? Of all the hills we could be dying on, that's the one…

It is not "fear-mongering". It is an objective analysis of factual truths.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#27

Post by dataflow »

NDlurker wrote: post #24
dataflow wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google's "escape hatch" is a trap door >> Wait 24 hours >> Pick "allow temporarily" (7 days) or "allow indefinitely Geez. I don't like what they're doing either but this fear-mongering is not helping your cause. So the "trap door" here is just that you can't buy a phone and immediately start loading apps from unverified developers onto it until 24h have passed? Of all the hills we could be dying on, that's the one…

I'm guessing you've never shown up to a foreign country without a phone. First thing I do after I get through customs is find the phone store.

> I'm guessing you've never shown up to a foreign country without a phone. First thing I do after I get through customs is find the phone store.

Indeed I have not. In fact I haven't even heard of people doing this until your comment. And that's before unknown app developers coming into the picture. I assume you do this to avoid border phone searches? And you feel the (ostensibly) security-related mechanisms for the rest of the world to be centered around this use case? Meaning the rest of the world should pay the cost to their own security to cater to this flow?

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#28

Post by SigmundurM »

> Donations are not tax-deductible

> Because we are a 501(c)(6), OSC is not a registered 501(c)(3) charity; donations to hosted member projects are not tax-deductible. This is consistent with IRS guidelines — open source donations aren't automatically classified as charitable simply because they are FOSS.

> If your project has a clear charitable purpose, a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor may be a good fit.

- https://docs.oscollective.org/welcome-and-introduction-to-os...

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#29

Post by dataflow »

jsiepkes wrote: post #20
dataflow wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google's "escape hatch" is a trap door >> Wait 24 hours >> Pick "allow temporarily" (7 days) or "allow indefinitely Geez. I don't like what they're doing either but this fear-mongering is not helping your cause. So the "trap door" here is just that you can't buy a phone and immediately start loading apps from unverified developers onto it until 24h have passed? Of all the hills we could be dying on, that's the one…

> fear-mongering is not helping your cause So we started with an OS (when Google still needed to gain market share and goodwill) which was opensource. Now Google is no longer developing Android source code in the open and decreasing the "opensourcing" to a couple of source drops each year (the interval has been decreased multiple times). Google Play was introduced (basically clamping down the app store ecosystem) and…

> And for some reason you seem to think it is reasonable to assume it is going to stop here?

I really don't. That is, actually, my entire point: people are going to roll their eyes at this right now. And then you're going to lack/lose the supporters you'll need when things really get bad.

Re: AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

#30

Post by notpushkin »

westurner wrote: post #19

It sounds like Epic Games v Google must be heard again? Does that precedent apply to this, or did they settle? Epic Games v. Google: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games_v._Google GitHub Sponsors is another way to raise for an open source organization.

> GitHub Sponsors is another way to raise for an open source organization.

Which they do in fact use, with OSC as a fiscal host. Still doesn’t help here though – Google is unhappy with the nature of transaction (donation that is not tax-exempt in the U.S.), not with the platform on which it occurs.

If they instead made the donations go to e.g. the lead developer, it would probably be allowed (“peer-to-peer payments” can’t use Google Play billing, so the app can “lead users to [another] payment method” [1]). Whether this is a good idea is a whole another question.

[1]: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...

Post reply on HN