AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link • Hacker News Board

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

#291

Post by megagpt2 » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:04 PM UTC

lmz wrote: post #290

megagpt2 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can just do it. They already have agreements for it anyway.

> For instance, iirc, shipping the phone primarily with a non-Google alternative ROM means you won't get any play services on them, even if you want to have a secondary version with a standard Google ROM. Is this wrong? Sure they have agreements but does it include "don't sell phones with alternative ROMs"? It's licensed software and I don't think the phone makers want to end up on the wrong side of a Google lawsuit.

They can just ship it under a shell company

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

#292

Post by pennomi » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 1:14 PM UTC

tremon wrote: post #205

ta8903 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's not that different from a deb or rpm repository The difference is that the default app stores require you to make an account to be able to use them. This would rightfully be considered insane on desktop OSs, yet is considered normal for phones.

Is it really that insane of itself? I don't see many people arguing that Valve is evil for requiring a Steam account to access their game library (ignoring the online activation/DRM question).

It’s not insane because Valve is not the OS provider, and you can install as many “app stores” as you want. Even SteamOS doesn’t lock down the OS so Steam is the only way to install software.

Annoyances like requiring an account become a preference, because you have alternatives.

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

#293

Post by lokar » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

dataflow wrote: post #263

lokar wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not true. If a donation is tax deductible that’s just between the IRS, the recipient and the donor. The payment processor, banks, etc don’t do anything special.

So I'm only a layperson and don't know what is strictly legally required , but my understanding (based on reading/third-hand information) is that payment processors do in practice end up with more work to do for this, whatever the reason. Quoting from [1]: > Nonprofits have strict tax regulations when accepting donations. The more a payment processing system can assist with these regulations, the better for you and y…

Sure, but that’s still a problem of their own making. These people don’t want to use them to process the payment. They just want to link to their own web page.