5 ms·

Could somebody please provide some context?

by josu 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ubernostrum 12y ago
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 balance was after the commit. And they insist that once a repository has been added to their system, they do not have the ability to remove it. This has legal and tax consequences they seem to be blissfully unaware of, and the best they'll offer is to stop sending you an email every time you make a commit. We (meaning the Django project) went a few rounds with them a while back and ultimately had to resort to threatening spam complaints against their ISP just to get the damn emails turned off. We still have been unable to get removed from the list of projects they "helpfully" collect donations for: https://github.com/tip4commit/tip4commit/issues/111 https://github.com/tip4commit/tip4commit/issues/111 The link in this thread is another major developer also attempting to get his repositories removed from their "service", and being stonewalled just as we were.
- colanderman 12y ago
  I wonder if you could threaten them with a cease & desist over a trademark violation? (Is there an argument to be made that they are illegally using your trademark to market their service by association?) Would be interested to hear from someone with a legal background about this.
  - Niksko 12y ago
    Sounds plausible. IANAL, but I know there are similar protections for somebody's likeness. As in, you're not allowed to use somebody's likeness to endorse a product without their consent. I can't see why the same wouldn't go for using somebody's trademark to endorse a product without the trademark owner's consent.
  - ubernostrum 12y ago
    Like I said, it's something I've investigated. Best I can tell as a non-attorney acting on advice from others, the way in which they advertise their services could be easily confused as implying a financial relationship with organizations or individuals with whom they do not have a (consenting) financial relationship. Where to go from there is an open question. The bigger question, as always with such things, is whether they cause enough annoyance to be worth lawyering them, and whether playing whack-a-mole -- since they're not the only "service" which does this -- would be a prudent way to spend time and money.
    - jacques_chester 12y ago
      I'd broaden my response to go after services they rely on, starting with github.
      - gnud 12y ago
        Github TOS G10: You must not upload, post, host, or transmit unsolicited email, SMSs, or "spam" messages. https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/#g-general-conditions https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/#g-...
- 0x0 12y ago
  Maybe try reporting every email they send to spamcop? That should give their hosting provider a pretty good incentive to block their email sending privileges.
- macspoofing 12y ago
  Wow, that was infuriating to read. They don't get it, they don't want to get it and they aren't listening.
  - malbs 12y ago
    Felt exactly the same way. The arrogance displayed by the tip4commit developers is rage-inducing.
  - apricot 12y ago
    Upton Sinclair said it best: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
- mbrownnyc 12y ago
  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.
  - aartur 12y ago
    Even if the data is publicly accessible, collecting and processing it is not permitted in all cases. Eg. the EU laws: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/data-collection/legal/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/data-collection/...
  - jlgaddis 12y ago
    Sounds somewhat like Klout (which I hated and also had to register with in order to opt-out)
- exDM69 12y ago
  > 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.
  - hippich 12y ago
    playing devil's advocate: may be tip4commit is not your problem, but rather your country's laws are if these allow to so easily mock anyone and risk of being convicted?
    - exDM69 12y ago
      My country has several stupid laws but there's very little I can do to change them (apart from voting). That doesn't make it OK for someone to run a dodgy "donations/tip/contribution" service, asking for money on my behalf. This could potentially cause problems for lots of people around the world (seems like UK has similar laws too). Stupid foreign laws don't go away by ignoring them. Running an international service requires you to understand the legislations you operate in.
      - jafaku 12y ago
        What if upvoting your comments was also made illegal in your country? Should we somehow guess that and stop?
        12y ago

Could somebody please provide some context?

by josu 12y ago

Could somebody please provide some context?

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

ubernostrum 12y ago

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 balance was after the commit. And they insist that once a repository has been added to their system, they do not have the ability to remove it. This has legal and tax consequences they seem to be blissfully unaware of, and the best they'll offer is to stop sending you an email every time you make a commit. We (meaning the Django project) went a few rounds with them a while back and ultimately had to resort to threatening spam complaints against their ISP just to get the damn emails turned off. We still have been unable to get removed from the list of projects they "helpfully" collect donations for: https://github.com/tip4commit/tip4commit/issues/111 https://github.com/tip4commit/tip4commit/issues/111 The link in this thread is another major developer also attempting to get his repositories removed from their "service", and being stonewalled just as we were.

colanderman 12y ago
I wonder if you could threaten them with a cease & desist over a trademark violation? (Is there an argument to be made that they are illegally using your trademark to market their service by association?) Would be interested to hear from someone with a legal background about this.
- Niksko 12y ago
  Sounds plausible. IANAL, but I know there are similar protections for somebody's likeness. As in, you're not allowed to use somebody's likeness to endorse a product without their consent. I can't see why the same wouldn't go for using somebody's trademark to endorse a product without the trademark owner's consent.
- ubernostrum 12y ago
  Like I said, it's something I've investigated. Best I can tell as a non-attorney acting on advice from others, the way in which they advertise their services could be easily confused as implying a financial relationship with organizations or individuals with whom they do not have a (consenting) financial relationship. Where to go from there is an open question. The bigger question, as always with such things, is whether they cause enough annoyance to be worth lawyering them, and whether playing whack-a-mole -- since they're not the only "service" which does this -- would be a prudent way to spend time and money.
  - jacques_chester 12y ago
    I'd broaden my response to go after services they rely on, starting with github.
    - gnud 12y ago
      Github TOS G10: You must not upload, post, host, or transmit unsolicited email, SMSs, or "spam" messages. https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/#g-general-conditions https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/#g-...
0x0 12y ago
Maybe try reporting every email they send to spamcop? That should give their hosting provider a pretty good incentive to block their email sending privileges.
macspoofing 12y ago
Wow, that was infuriating to read. They don't get it, they don't want to get it and they aren't listening.
- malbs 12y ago
  Felt exactly the same way. The arrogance displayed by the tip4commit developers is rage-inducing.
- apricot 12y ago
  Upton Sinclair said it best: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
mbrownnyc 12y ago
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.
- aartur 12y ago
  Even if the data is publicly accessible, collecting and processing it is not permitted in all cases. Eg. the EU laws: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/data-collection/legal/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/data-collection/...
- jlgaddis 12y ago
  Sounds somewhat like Klout (which I hated and also had to register with in order to opt-out)
exDM69 12y ago
> 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.
- hippich 12y ago
  playing devil's advocate: may be tip4commit is not your problem, but rather your country's laws are if these allow to so easily mock anyone and risk of being convicted?
  - exDM69 12y ago
    My country has several stupid laws but there's very little I can do to change them (apart from voting). That doesn't make it OK for someone to run a dodgy "donations/tip/contribution" service, asking for money on my behalf. This could potentially cause problems for lots of people around the world (seems like UK has similar laws too). Stupid foreign laws don't go away by ignoring them. Running an international service requires you to understand the legislations you operate in.
    - jafaku 12y ago
      What if upvoting your comments was also made illegal in your country? Should we somehow guess that and stop?
      - 12y ago