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

Please remove mitsuhiko/*

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 445 posts

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#91

Post by exDM69 »

randallsquared wrote: post #45
ubernostrum wrote: post #5

I do not normally rant, but tip4commit and its ilk are some of the most infuriating people in the world to deal with, since they're opting other people's projects into something that has all sorts of legal/taxation consequences and think that "we have no way to remove you once you get opted in" is an acceptable answer. I'd push complaints further up to GitHub, since I'm sure something in the way this works violates t…

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.

> How can there be taxation consequences unless ...

Tax? Perhaps not, but the OP was talking about tax and other legal consequences. These can vary wildly from country to country.

My local legislation requires applying for a permit before asking for donations. If a 3rd party would add my projects to this website, I could face criminal charges and the proof of burden would be on me.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#92

Post by arsenische »

sorpaas wrote: post #66
colanderman wrote: post #10

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.

yes, that's right, thanks!

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#93

Post by taneliv »

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?

I'm quite sure it can have consequences (just don't think it will). Some countries have declared bitcoin to be illegal (see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_Bitcoin_by_country for details), so it may be enough to participate in a scheme where receiving them is typical to put someone in jeopardy.

As to punishing somebody for actions of others, that is perhaps not typical (although I think some countries actually do punish women for the actions of men, finding examples left as an excercise for the reader). However, you can cause considerable trouble for sending items (say, by international mail) which are legal in your jurisdiction to someone in whose jurisdiction they are not allowed. I'm living in a relatively modern western society, but would still prefer you did not send me cash, drugs or weapons to me with or without my knowledge.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#94

Post by brador »

iolsantr wrote: post #62
brador wrote: 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?

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

Can you trademark open source project names?

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#95

Post by arsenische »

andrewstuart2 wrote: post #23
colanderman wrote: post #10

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…

I doubt it's a mistake. If you ask me, it's more likely that this is the whole goal of "the project."

> If you ask me, it's more likely that this is the whole goal of "the project."

No, it is not. We just came with this idea for rails rumble competition, it was pretty spontaneous.

Sorry if "to the project" sounds ambiguous, I meant "to the funded project" (not to tip4commit unless we are talking about tips to https://tip4commit.com/github/tip4commit/tip4commit contributors).

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#96

Post by MrUnderhill »

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.

I was wondering about Flattr as well. You can connect your account to Github, and the owners of repos that you star will be "flattred". I've done this a few times, some that haven't been claimed yet too - I admit it never crossed my mind that it could be nothing but an inconvenience to the recipient.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#97

Post by teamhappy »

maxerickson wrote: post #76
teamhappy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 abo…

The reason I felt the need to explain the legal situation is that some people seem to think there's an objective right/wrong here and that's just not true.

Furthermore, I believe the reaction to this issue is way over the top. The tip4commit people seem very well intentioned in that they created a website for people to donate to open source projects. They might be stubborn and adding the disclaimer might have taken a couple of days to long, but I don't see how any of this justifies so much hate.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#98

Post by randallsquared »

Erwin wrote: post #83
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.

Consider this: you are in a high-tax country and have some incoming lucrative income. Instead of receiving that income and paying the tax, the company sends you an email saying: Here's a $100,000, come get if you want, but you don't have to! It's a tip! It'll get donated to MSF in a few years. Wink, wink. You put in your income for the year as $0 (not having accepted this tip), and leave for the Seyschelles, where su…

Sure, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_avoidance . Various strategies to reduce income in one year or jurisdiction and apply it to another are widespread, and I'm not sure why this would be different. I am not a lawyer, though.

The "It's a tip!" nature of this seems irrelevant to taxes: either you accept it or you don't, and if you do, you may or may not be required to pay taxes on it, depending on laws that are applied to you.

Re: Please remove mitsuhiko/*

#99

Post by aartur »

arsenische wrote: post #86
colanderman wrote: post #10

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…

When I said "returned to the project's balance" - I meant "returned to the funded project's balance" so that other contributors to that project could receive them. Sorry if sounds ambiguous, English is not my native language. E. g. if you donate to reward contributors of https://tip4commit.com/github/bitcoin/bitcoin and some contributor doesn't specify bitcoin address to claim tips within 30 days then his or her tips…

And what happens when a project's owner will never claim tips? Like if he declared he is not interested in using your site, but people will pay tips because they see the project's name?
Post reply on HN