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I had an odd thought reading this article. I wonder if what might be considered malware could actually be a legitimate agreement between the user and the progra

I had an odd thought reading this article. I wonder if what might be considered malware could actually be a legitimate agreement between the user and the programmer? Something like "Instead of a subscription, I'm going to SMS these 3 numbers once a month and it's going to cost you five bucks" This actually might bypass all the headaches folks are having with merchant accounts and payment plans and work out as something both the user and developer might like a lot better. If crooks can make millions charging for bogus SMS messages, why can't legitimate programmers use the same payment mechanism for stuff the users like? Don't know. Just throwing it out there. What caught my eye was the assumption that any program using SMS to rack up charges was malware. Is that always a true statement?

rsynnott 15y ago
> If crooks can make millions charging for bogus SMS messages, why can't legitimate programmers use the same payment mechanism for stuff the users like? This exists; you see it occasionally for web games. It's quite expensive, though, and I suspect it's not allowed on Android if you're in the marketplace; does Google allow you to use third-party payment stuff for marketplace apps?
- bostonvaulter2 15y ago
  Some apps use a separate paypal link that avoids the market.
  - TillE 15y ago
    Yeah, Google is pretty loose with their rules, and the Market structure passes a lot of complexity (ie, sales tax responsibility) on to each developer. I'm seriously considering using something like BMT Micro to sell upgrades to a free app. The classic shareware model, more or less. I'd really like to sidestep all the annoyances and time overhead that come with selling stuff directly. I believe the iOS App Store is set up that way already (where you're effectively licensing them to sell your software and they're paying you royalties), but unfortunately not the Android Market.
    - rsynnott 15y ago
      The Android market passes sales tax responsibility to the developer? I hadn't realized that; that sounds absolutely ridiculous. How do small developers cope with it at all? Yep, the iOS app store is effectively a publisher; the only tax complexities involved are countries which practice withholding (the US and Japan, in particular; unless you register with their tax authorities they withhold a percentage, even for countries with which they have tax treaties), and special treatment of royalties in some countries.

rsynnott 15y ago

> If crooks can make millions charging for bogus SMS messages, why can't legitimate programmers use the same payment mechanism for stuff the users like? This exists; you see it occasionally for web games. It's quite expensive, though, and I suspect it's not allowed on Android if you're in the marketplace; does Google allow you to use third-party payment stuff for marketplace apps?

bostonvaulter2 15y ago
Some apps use a separate paypal link that avoids the market.
- TillE 15y ago
  Yeah, Google is pretty loose with their rules, and the Market structure passes a lot of complexity (ie, sales tax responsibility) on to each developer. I'm seriously considering using something like BMT Micro to sell upgrades to a free app. The classic shareware model, more or less. I'd really like to sidestep all the annoyances and time overhead that come with selling stuff directly. I believe the iOS App Store is set up that way already (where you're effectively licensing them to sell your software and they're paying you royalties), but unfortunately not the Android Market.
  - rsynnott 15y ago
    The Android market passes sales tax responsibility to the developer? I hadn't realized that; that sounds absolutely ridiculous. How do small developers cope with it at all? Yep, the iOS app store is effectively a publisher; the only tax complexities involved are countries which practice withholding (the US and Japan, in particular; unless you register with their tax authorities they withhold a percentage, even for countries with which they have tax treaties), and special treatment of royalties in some countries.