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A comment on Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to donation links. Parent comment

Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by sniuff on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @07:35AM (#21269247)
Open source app can be compiled and installed without Google play store. If you are hosting on their platform, you adhere to their rules, you are not paying monthly for your free app download bandwith and storage do you ?
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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by icebraining on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @07:42AM (#21269290)
That doesn't mean you can't question (and even criticize!) the rules or their application.
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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by acollins1331 on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @07:45AM (#21269316)
Wow great point. Now why the hell can't they have a donation link?
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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by Spivak on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @09:08AM (#21269917)
Because you can't use Google's store as a sales funnel without giving them a 30% cut. It doesn't matter if you're a company taking payments or an individual accepting donations.
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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by ViViDboarder on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @12:03PM (#21271884)
Wrong. You can’t even use Google with giving them a 30% cut since donations are prohibited from Google Payments.
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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by BlueTemplar on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @12:04PM (#21271891)
I'm not a lawyer, but aren't sales and donations quite different? For instance donations tend to have negative taxes...
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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by 0xEFF on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @12:42PM (#21272400)
Not unless your entity is 503(c) tax-exempt which is explicitly allowed by Google.

These “donations” are more like tips, which are treated as taxable income.

I don’t see the problem here. The outrage in this thread seems more about people wanting a different set of rules for OSS and possibly avoiding income tax than anything else. If there are a different set of rules for OSS, then that just makes it easier to abuse the platform. Google’s policy seems fair to me.

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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by BlueTemplar on Thursday October 17, 2019 @03:30AM (#21279730)
Hmm, yeah, I guess that if we want patronage to become a viable economic model, then it will have to be taxed at some point... Since I mostly give to (AFAIK) tax-exempt entities, I didn't think of this...

But neither seems to have Google ! While the global license/patronage debates are already a decade old, and we have seen new companies get started and even established in this sector (Patreon). For instance this "donations" page only seems to cover non-profits ? https://www.google.com/nonprofits/offerings/google-donation-...

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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by rleigh on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @01:51PM (#21273223)
"Tips" might well be taxable income. But that doesn't automatically entitle Google to a cut of them. Talk about a greedy land grab.
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Re:Open-source apps removed from Google Play Store due to do... by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @08:57AM (#21269832)
> you are not paying monthly for your free app download bandwith and storage do you ?

Do I have that option?

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