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Please remove mitsuhiko/*

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61–70 of 445 posts

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#61
post #4

Could somebody please provide some context?

tip4commit is one of a number of services which, without asking for permission or notifying you, opt your projects into a BitCoin-based crowdfunding system. Even if your project doesn't want it, even if your project has its own donation/support system you'd like to send people to. Historically they spammed committers of force-opted-in repositories with an email on every commit to tell them what their new BTC donation…

This reminds me of a site (the name of which I apparently have washed from my memory, but not manta) that creates a profile for you from your public LinkedIn profile. It showed up in a google search when I was looking for a job, and contained older entries. I had to opt-in, sign up, and edit my information in order for it to be removed. The point everyone here is missing, is that this is the free-market risk of publishing things to the open web.

Deal with the issue some other way. There are unethical people out there who want to make money in crafty ways.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#62
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We (Django) already threatened that a while back. They still insist they will not remove projects or stop collecting donations on behalf of non-consenting projects. All they did was manually disable some of the spam coming toward our committers.

Assuming you had the muscle, what's the worst a dev could theoretically hit them with? Could they be succesfully sued? DMCA?

If a project name was trademarked, you might be able to get them for trading on that name, maybe?

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#63
post #56

Maybe it's time for a LICENSE addendum? "Unless the services stated here, no money should be collect in the project behalf. "? I know it's not a good solution, but it's a solution, where you can file license violations wherever they host this project.

IANAL but I don't think that would work unless tip4commit is using your software; otherwise they don't have to agree to your license.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#64
post #14

If open source parasites like tip4commit don't learn, the next logical step is to trademark projects and send DMCA notices without wasting any further time. Also, with this kind of sleazy behavior, the advertising clause in the BSD license suddenly becomes very appealing again.

The author of tip4commit has already stated they're not from America. DMCA is only relevant within America as far as I know.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#65
post #51
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you had the muscle, what's the worst a dev could theoretically hit them with? Could they be succesfully sued? DMCA?

You do realise that there is life and even entire civilizations outside of the USA, where DMCA holds no jurisdiction and the entire idea of suing becomes much more complicated? Especially when it seems from the GitHub discussion thread the tip4commit founder lives in a place where there is no regulations regarding what is a spam and what is not. ;)

DMCA being relevant or not, my understanding is that the takedown notice goes to the website's ISP (LINODE-US in this case).

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#66

From the FAQ: > What happens to unclaimed tips (if recipient doesn't sign in and specify his/her bitcoin address)? Funds that are not claimed during 30 days get returned back to the project. Presumably "the project" in the answer refers to tip4commit? If so, isn't tip4commit committing fraud by advertising that tips go to the intended recipient, when in fact, if the recipient does not participate, they go into tip4co…

It seems to mean go back from the committer to the project that is funded, not tip4commit's coffers.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#67
I believe Flattr does something similar.

They will accept donations on behalf of a YouTube channel (or Instagram, Soundcloud, etc.) whether the content creator opted in or not and release the fund when the creator claims his/her donations.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can there be taxation consequences unless you act to set up a bitcoin address and accept the offered tip? If you've done all that, I think it's clear you know what you're doing. If you don't do that, then the money (apparently?) returns to the project you committed to, from whence it came. The only way there could be tax is if you receive the money, and that can only happen by you deliberately becoming involved.

People have legitimate reasons to avoid messing with BTC or others. Some people don't even want to hassle with currencies beyond their own. Even if they oblige in accepting BTC and just convert it to their preferred currency, they'd be forced to go through the process of signing up and verifying with some sort of exchange. What if they don't want to do business with those institutions, or share their financial detail…

Nobody is being forced to accept the money, and therefore nobody is being forced to interact with bitcoin. The money is there if they want to claim it. If not, no problem, they can just ignore it in which case it doesn't affect them.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#69
post #14

If open source parasites like tip4commit don't learn, the next logical step is to trademark projects and send DMCA notices without wasting any further time. Also, with this kind of sleazy behavior, the advertising clause in the BSD license suddenly becomes very appealing again.

The author of tip4commit has already stated they're not from America. DMCA is only relevant within America as far as I know.

Their ISP appears to be LINODE-US. But the other commenters are right that DMCA probably does not apply to trademarks.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're responding to something other than what I'm talking about. Of course the laws still apply, but the enforcement mechanisms (which have thus far been administered via institutions) can now be circumvented to a certain extent. It is a fundamental conflict and adjustment will be required.

I was trying to address directly that point. Pre-bitcoin, you could avoid the enforcement mechanisms with hard cash and a barrow. There was a long running British sitcom called "Only Fools and Horses" that dealt with this quite thoroughly. edit - If fleshed out a bit, the premise behind this project might actually make quite a good 21st century sequel episode. Del Boy would love bitcoin.

Except you know it would be a complete balls up, of course. Rodney would be all excited about the idea of Bitcoin, convince Del Boy on it, and then they'd start up their own TITcoin (Trotter's Independent Traders, of course) which would totally fall on its arse ;-)
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