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Please remove mitsuhiko/*

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Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#71

Post by [deleted] »

Blahah wrote: post #68
hack_edu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#72

Post by sharpneli »

danbruc wrote: post #20
linohh wrote: post #7

This is problematic in many different ways. Tax reasons are one. Noncompete agreements with exempts for non commercial / open source work another. Having a balance on this site, even if it's zero, can have severe implications for the maintainer(s).

I don't think it can have consequences - how would you justify punishing somebody for something somebody else did?

In Finland all kickstarter style fundraisers are explicitly illegal, so is this. Basically any collection of money requires a special permit that is only handed to certain charitable causes etc. Otherwise it's paid work and has totally different rules governing it.

In this case the person would have to prove that they're not involved with tip4commit. Quite likely the prosecutor would simply say that you're cheating and are trying to circumvent the law this way. Because how improbable it is that someone would collect money for you even if you wouldn't want to?

So yeah. In some countries it might become a big problem.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#73

Post by imrehg »

bhc wrote: post #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.

Bountysource[1] seems to be even closer, not sure if that got any such complaints.

[1]: https://www.bountysource.com/

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#74

Post by nakovet »

aidenn0 wrote: post #63
nakovet wrote: 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.

Good catch, all they are using is the project name. =( I guess a license addendum would have no effect.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#75

Post by bhc »

imrehg wrote: post #73
bhc wrote: post #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.

Bountysource[1] seems to be even closer, not sure if that got any such complaints. [1]: https://www.bountysource.com/

I think the issue here might be Bitcoin. Many sites that deal in Bitcoin get "hacked" and the balances disappear, allegedly into the site operators' pockets.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#76

Post by maxerickson »

teamhappy wrote: post #25
jedanbik wrote: post #11

This is gross to read because it's really about consent.

I disagree. He explicitly consented to everybody doing whatever they want with the software. I just don't think it's fair to allow people to do one thing and then make them feel bad about it once they do it. --- Let me clarify a couple of things here so I don't have to write short replies to all of you. Let's start with the 3-clause-BSD license. It states that you aren't allowed to use the names of the contributors t…

Your focus on the software and license (which continues in your clarification) is more a demonstration that you haven't understood the situation than it is disagreement with anything being discussed. The complaint is Please remove my repositories from the website and do not add a way to add them again. I do not value third party websites gameifying my projects, but where it says "repositories", it is not talking about copies of the software, it is talking about listings on tip4commit.com that look(ed!) like they were collecting donations for mitsuhiko/*.

Maybe my other replies will make more sense in that light.

(the (ed!) is because they at least have stuck up a disclaimer saying the projects don't like the funding)

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#77

Post by hack_edu »

Blahah wrote: post #68
hack_edu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Would the project be sustainable, or more fair, if it allowed project maintainers to whitelist currencies, and manage that integration for them? That seems more appropriate and follows the the spirit of giving that the project encourages.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#78

Post by Cakez0r »

sfk wrote: 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.

Giving money to open source developers. How parasitical.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#79

Post by exDM69 »

ubernostrum wrote: post #9
josu wrote: 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 has legal and tax consequences they seem to be blissfully unaware of

To make matters worse, they have no idea about or no will to learn about foreign laws.

If they listed any of my projects on their website, I, personally would be considered to be participating in illegal activities in my home country. Regardless of whether I would have ever received any money, asking for donations requires a permit ahead of time here. The police could come knocking on my door demanding for an explanation (they'd probably send a letter, though).

It would be extremely unlikely that I would ever get convicted, but I'd have to spend a lot of effort proving my innocence in something I played no part in.

Besides, looking at this project and the number of similar projects (all using cryptocurrencies), it seems like there are no noble intentions behind this. A lot of the funds donated might never get claimed, which means that the intermediate party could usurp the money because no transparency is involved.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#80

Post by eordano »

hack_edu wrote: post #59
randallsquared wrote: post #45

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…

I feel like we shouldn't miss the point here: you can't impersonate me and take donations in my name without my consent, no matter the currency (or regulations or whatever) being used. Make it opt-in, not "opted in by default and no way to opt out".
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