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An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

kvirkvelia.com

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Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#11

Post by NKosmatos »

ceejayoz wrote: post #3
melissalobos wrote: post #2

At least the plugin guy was reasonable-ish. That does sounds like a really odd experience. It does pay to always check all of the dependencies you are using and their terms. When I was younger I got hit by limits when using a free tier of a service, but they just throttled us which lost us users.

The plugin guy can afford to be reasonable-ish. It reduces the likelihood of the scam being publicly disclosed, and I'd wager that 99% of people never notice the plugin is doing this.

Oh come on, it's not a scam and he's not stealing anything. It's clearly mentioned on the license and it's up to the users to go through it (like any other open-source plugin or software they use). At the end of the day the plugin creator was polite, understanding and returned money back even though he was not obliged to do so. It's a win-win situation as they clearly describe it, but the OP wasn't satisfied with the high (30%) percentage.

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#12

Post by pavel_lishin »

teddyh wrote: post #7
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plugin guy can afford to be reasonable-ish. It reduces the likelihood of the scam being publicly disclosed, and I'd wager that 99% of people never notice the plugin is doing this.

How is it a “scam” if the terms are clearly posted? EDIT: The percentage increase from 2% to 30% was not posted; I withdraw my opinion on that.

The "30% markup if our algorithm thinks you're doing something sneaky" was not disclosed.

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#13

Post by ZetaZero »

teddyh wrote: post #7
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plugin guy can afford to be reasonable-ish. It reduces the likelihood of the scam being publicly disclosed, and I'd wager that 99% of people never notice the plugin is doing this.

How is it a “scam” if the terms are clearly posted? EDIT: The percentage increase from 2% to 30% was not posted; I withdraw my opinion on that.

2% was clearly posted. Yet the plugin was taking 30%.

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#14

Post by ceejayoz »

NKosmatos wrote: post #11
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plugin guy can afford to be reasonable-ish. It reduces the likelihood of the scam being publicly disclosed, and I'd wager that 99% of people never notice the plugin is doing this.

Oh come on, it's not a scam and he's not stealing anything. It's clearly mentioned on the license and it's up to the users to go through it (like any other open-source plugin or software they use). At the end of the day the plugin creator was polite, understanding and returned money back even though he was not obliged to do so. It's a win-win situation as they clearly describe it, but the OP wasn't satisfied with the…

The plugin was secretly taking 15x what it claimed to.

The ease with which a (substantial!) refund was offered makes me think it wasn't an isolated incident.

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#15

Post by pavel_lishin »

NKosmatos wrote: post #11
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plugin guy can afford to be reasonable-ish. It reduces the likelihood of the scam being publicly disclosed, and I'd wager that 99% of people never notice the plugin is doing this.

Oh come on, it's not a scam and he's not stealing anything. It's clearly mentioned on the license and it's up to the users to go through it (like any other open-source plugin or software they use). At the end of the day the plugin creator was polite, understanding and returned money back even though he was not obliged to do so. It's a win-win situation as they clearly describe it, but the OP wasn't satisfied with the…

> the OP wasn't satisfied with the high (30%) percentage.

The OP was never informed of the high percentage!

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#16

Post by NKosmatos »

joshstrange wrote: post #9

I'm of two minds about this. "Stealing" does seem to be a little too harsh given the plugin did say it would take a percentage if you make more than $1K and didn't buy a license. The 30% seems underhand (only because it's not spelled out in the repo) but I do understand the plugin author's position. Open source work, especially something like Ionic/Cordova/Capacitor plugins, are hard to make any money on and I've see…

Yes, a good point. He should update the license (https://github.com/floatinghotpot/cordova-admob-pro/wiki/Lic...) to state from 2% up to 30%.

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#18

Post by teddyh »

libeclipse wrote: post #6
teddyh wrote: post #4

So he used code straight off GitHub, didn’t read the license terms, and then has the gall to call it “stealing” when the program does exactly as it says it would. Either learn to read licenses, or have a list of approved licenses (MIT, GPL, etc.) and only use software thus licensed. EDIT: What I mean above is the 2% which is specified in the “Licence Agreement” page – the article author is clearly considering this, t…

The GitHub page said it would take 2% but actually took 30%. How is that "exactly as it says it would"?

He called the 2% “stealing”, too. Sure, the slow increase to 30% was not documented, and I can see a good argument being made there.

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#19

Post by jscheel »

I'm confused, where in the license does it give them the permission to randomly assign an ad-share percentage? This seems highly suspect, and probably illegal in most jurisdictions. In fact, reading the actual license agreement here https://github.com/floatinghotpot/cordova-admob-pro/wiki/Lic... seems to suggest that they will stop serving ads, not randomly start increasing ad share.

Re: An ad plugin was stealing revenue for a year and I didn't even notice

#20

Post by Deukhoofd »

teddyh wrote: post #4

So he used code straight off GitHub, didn’t read the license terms, and then has the gall to call it “stealing” when the program does exactly as it says it would. Either learn to read licenses, or have a list of approved licenses (MIT, GPL, etc.) and only use software thus licensed. EDIT: What I mean above is the 2% which is specified in the “Licence Agreement” page – the article author is clearly considering this, t…

The software license is MIT, but there's a page on their wiki that vaguely says they take a cut of your earnings over 1000$. It definitely does not mention 30% however:

> If you have used this plugin for FREE but monetized more than $1000, you are also required to get a license, or share us some Ad traffic as stated in win-win partnership model below

> Ship our code with yours to end-user, no need paying a cent at all, instead, share 2 percent ad traffic, so that we can both benefit and cover our cost to maintain and enhance this project.

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