People ripping off the devs here - HD2 Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting and Genera

So its come to my attention after looking at craigslist for a new phone, that people are ripping off the devs hard work HERE and charging 30 dollars to put android on peoples HD2's heres a link to one of them.
http://charlotte.craigslist.org/mob/2123304749.html
I dont know about everyone here, but i think this forum is about sharing info an having fun with it, Not letting these hilljacks make money off what the hard working devs here have put their time an sweat into.. If anyone should be gettin the 30 dollars it should def be the devs here. I just wanted to bring this to everyones attention an feel free to reply to his post an let him know what you think Merry christmas everyone

It happens with everything, it is a natural fact of life, get over it.

happens ALL the time, this was going on back when I had my old HTC Trinity and people were selling Dev's Windows Mobile ROMS as their own on places like craigslist.
It's low, it's unfair, it's basically sh*tty, but there's very little we can do about it because so many people do it.
Legally, only Google can do something about it because they're selling a product that isn't theirs. Though then you get into the grey area that they're actually selling a SERVICE not the product...

ZedEx48K said:
It happens with everything, it is a natural fact of life, get over it.
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Im just sayin the devs should get the money here, not some hooker on CL thats all

Antimus said:
they're actually selling a SERVICE not the product...
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My understanding too...

See thats what i thought too, but looking at all the diff post from the same guy hes doing iphone jailbreaking an unlocking for 10 dollars, i dont see how puttin a folder on a SD card makes a 20 dollar price spike, but thats just me

Theres a lot of people out there who do not have the time or the brains to read through all the guides on how to get android on your HD2. It took me about 2 days and over 8 hours to figure out how to get android on my HD2.
I contemplated having someone do it for me, but realized, much like building my first PC, it's a better experience to learn it all myself.

I agree with Antimus - he's not ripping anyone off.
He's not claiming he made the software, and he's not selling the software.
He's got knowledge and experience that not everyone has, and is offering that as a service to people who want android on their phone, but without the bother of figuring it out themselves.
However, he's only able to do this due to other people's hard work, so it'd be fair of him to donate a bit of his proceeds to those who made it possible for him to offer the service in the first place.
Payments to Devs by people like this could never be enforced, so if you want to make sure the Devs benefit, offer your own service at $25, and give $3 to the devs each time you make a sale

On the surface this seems like a bit of a ripoff. But the simple fact is that many people do not want to tinker with their phones the way all us forum types do.
I can compare this service to a guy who came round to "fix" my Mum's computer (unfortunately she lives in a different country otherwise I would have done it!). He charged her £20 to do a defrag!!! BUt, as my Mum pointed out, her computer worked better afterwards and she would not have known what to do so she was happy.
Much as it seems like the hard work of our XDA devs is being used as a means for other people to make a bit of cash on the side, I don't think it is quite "ripping them off".

I tend to agree with the others, the example given is for the service and he's not claiming to be a dev or selling the software itself. The same argument could be applied with a lot of what goes on in this website. A lot of the devs use other peoples work to creat their own builds.
I agree he should at least credit those who put the build together but there is nothing in the advert saying he is not doing that anyway.
People tend to forget that you do need some technical knowledge to use this website, and that there are many people out there that would be willing to pay a "man-with-screwdriver) to just do all the technical stuff for them. Very enterprising.

I wanna see, how she will install android on a HD2
NAND isn't there thought.
Think she will get problems, if costumers restart the phone and see WM booting.

Knowledge is power! No one is ripping no one off. If Dev's didn't want there knowledge passed on they would not post it for public use. Unfortunately some people just don't have the brain capacity to mod there own smart phones. Its the same with computers...U can download win7 from practically anywhere for free online but people would pay some guy (geek) to install it on his pc for money. Or how bout Modding game consoles (xbox, ps3, dsi, psp) for money. Its NOT the product there selling, Its the service and knowledge...dam 30bucks, wonder how much he charges to upgrade kernel
Welcome to the free world of internet where knowing makes you MONEY!

If you search, there's one of these posts every month or so.... Read there, find the same conclusions as will be posted here.

Moved to Android General Discussion. As long as this discussion stays civil, I'll allow the thread to remain open. If it gets carried away, I'll be forced to close it.
That being said, this is a VERY common problem and yes these guys do tend to get away with it. I will agree though that getting Android up and running was one of the harder things I did when I first started. I was a seasoned ROM "cook" but couldn't for the life of me figure out why Android was so unstable or why it wouldn't boot. Now I'm pretty savvy with it and I can manipulate it to do just about whatever I want. A lot of people don't want to go through what I did and so if they have the money, a lot of them ARE willing to pay. I have a friend who is a truck driver who had a Sprint Touch(Vogue) and he paid me to update it every time he was in town(It was always a "Hey thanks Dan!", it was never asked of him to pay me). I'd put a new ROM on it, restore his contacts, set up his email, etc.. He was a happy guy.
There's a lot of people like this out there. Simply put, there's really no way of stopping people who offer these "services" so it's best left alone. People will take every chance they get to capitalize. It doesn't matter if it's their work or not.

nocturnalmike said:
See thats what i thought too, but looking at all the diff post from the same guy hes doing iphone jailbreaking an unlocking for 10 dollars, i dont see how puttin a folder on a SD card makes a 20 dollar price spike, but thats just me
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ya well if he or she is just putting the android folder on the sd card that is much but if someone that doesnt have a clue on to even turn on there phone that gives them a chance to have android but i am only guessing that its not just that but also a hardslp update rom change an android i mean this all sounds like clock work for us but were geeks to this stuff lol alot of other people are just know they want android an that they have a big screen black thingy phone that has some kind of card that sticks into it lol

I think the difference here is that some people are charging for a service. I'd hope these people give some of the money they make from putting Android on random people's phones to the developers here which have shown continued support for these handsets or done something that has helped them along the way. Or better still to a charity of a devs choice!
I think this can easily be confused with, for example, some f**kwit selling pirated DVDs in a car park. The idiot doing this is making money directly off someone elses back, as opposed to say someone who is sharing a movie for free via BitTorrent; where nobody loses out.
Or, for example, someone puts up an outdoor TV aerial for someone so they can get more Freeview TV channels. They didn't help in the production of the shows or the running of the channels but still, they're providing an indirect service and using their time.
I think because, unlike the BBC and ITV who will always keep Mr. TV installer in some kind of business, the devs here do it for nothing so it would be nice if someone DID make money off flashing a phone or installing Android, they'd give something back to the people who did the hard work for their own free persuit of knowledge and sharing!
The best way, though, is to educate people and get them interested in doing this stuff for themselves. So many people want things spoonfed to them (hence why the iPhone is so popular, and hey, this isn't such a bad thing as most people just want a phone that works and to get on with life, we're in the minority!)
I'd not dream of charging someone for this myself. I'd happily sort a friend out with Android for free or better yet tell them about XDA devs. Done it plenty of times already.

nocturnalmike said:
So its come to my attention after looking at craigslist for a new phone, that people are ripping off the devs hard work HERE and charging 30 dollars to put android on peoples HD2's heres a link to one of them.
http://charlotte.craigslist.org/mob/2123304749.html
I dont know about everyone here, but i think this forum is about sharing info an having fun with it, Not letting these hilljacks make money off what the hard working devs here have put their time an sweat into.. If anyone should be gettin the 30 dollars it should def be the devs here. I just wanted to bring this to everyones attention an feel free to reply to his post an let him know what you think Merry christmas everyone
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All the time this happens.
Check this:
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/...ds-aplicativos-jogos-android-frete-gratis-_JM (Google Translated PT->EN)
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/...id-15-para-22-galaxy-i7500-suporte-online-_JM (Google Translated PT->EN)
Mercado Livre is a eBay-like website. Yesterday I denounced three offers to "update HD2 with Android"
In both cases, isn´t a simple service, but a copyrighted material, sutffs like iGO GPS Software and others..

Who cares if people are stupid ennough to not realize how easy it is to do then its their own fault... and its not ripping the devastating off for spending their time to do it for you.... its open just like manufactures charge us for the service to repair a phone with google android if it gets messed up... google doesn't get butthurt about them using their os while doing it and charging for it... its called charging for labor not the platform
Sent from my HTC bravo using XDA App

How exactly are they ripping off the devs? They are not stealing from them at all.
They are charging people money for their TIME to put android on their device. It doesn't matter if they just give people the link to this site. People are busy and not everyone is competent enough to take a risk bricking their own phone doing something they have never done before. And Im sure most people dont have the time to sit down and read through all this content to make sure what they are doing is right.
So stop overreacting to this.

OOOOOOOOOK. Time to end this.
Clearly there are different opinions and no single opinion is correct/incorrect in this case. I personally think that it sucks that someone other than the Dev is making money off of something they did for free and shared publicly but at the same time, kudos to the guy who is able to make $20-30 doing a 5 minute job that the guy paying could have done himself for free if he just invested a few hours reading first.
There's no right answer and so this discussion is really only going to end up turning into an argument.
Thread closed.

Related

People using YOUR ROMS to make money..interesting

I called and spoke to the arrogant person who ran this ad on Craigs List and found out they he truly thinks what he is doing is "alright". From what I see, using ROMS created here and posted by DEVs here at XDA to make cash is a little more than shady. When I called, I posed as a customer and tried not to laugh as the guy stuttered through the "how to" of installing Android. The funny thing is that he claims they are doing a FULL INSTALL of Android, "converting" the phone to Android from WM.................. They are charging people $99 for this "service". I told the guy that $99 sounded a little high a charge just to drop a folder on a SD card (yeah..i know theres a lil more to it but I'm sure that comment made him feel stupid after telling me the "how to" of it all..lol). I also told him that i was a member here at XDA and I wanted to know which ROMS he was using to make this money. He told me he was "Charging for the ROMs, just the service". My problem with that is this, HE didnt create the roms and NEVER claimed to. He DID however admit to being a member here.........................
http://panamacity.craigslist.org/mob/2043941262.html
What do you think?
like i said the guy said he is a member here...so if you're reading this please do share your inane little excuses for what you are doing. Just wondering, do you happen to send a check at the end of the month to each of the DEVs for use of their ROMS? Or is this something that is not frowned upon around this community UNLIKE others?
get everyone you can to to flag this as prohibited and spam him with emails saying how wrong it is.
people disgust me..... what they will do to make a little money..... stealing other peoples work and marketing it as their own. lying cheating little worthless ******** ******* **********
malaeus said:
get everyone you can to to flag this as prohibited and spam him with emails saying how wrong it is.
people disgust me..... what they will do to make a little money..... stealing other peoples work and marketing it as their own. lying cheating little worthless ******** ******* **********
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Everyone should give the guy a call and let him know how they feel about it. I asked the idiot whos roms he is using and he wouldnt say anything. He actually gave the phone over to some arrogant little prick who said, "you have a great day sir". The idiot didnt even try to defend himself or "explain" why they are charging $99 to put Android on HD2s.
done
no more issues!
This posting has been flagged for removal
(The title on the listings page will be removed in just a few minutes.)
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This scam has been around for a while unfortunately
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Unfortunately these ass-clowns will just pop up somewhere else, but well done guys, I cant stand people who make money in this way, $99 vs a little research, I know what I would rather do.
Look at this guy!
http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/mob/2043679363.html
and look what this one claims! LOL
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mob/2044497140.html
Yeah I've seen this ads also but never $99 that's just crazy.
These guys post these ads waiting for people who don't know about sites like XDA. I got a lot of people around my way who have an HD2 and want Android or custom wm rom and I just text them the forum link and tell them to READ and LEARN. If you start doing it for them they call you drowning you with questions and problems because we all know no Android build is perfect (yet) and you can't sell something that's going to turn a one time sale into series of complaints from customers you charged for something you never created yourself.
Shame on these guys and they should be banned from XDA.
I ran across one like that in my local area CL a few weeks back. I simply took his original subject line and added [FAKE] at both ends, then posted pretty much the full instructions on setting up Android on HD2 in my reply. Copied and pasted the whole deal and saved it to a txt file so I would have it if ever I happen to see it on there again.
These folks are the lowest of the low. Making money from other folks hard work, and screwing their so called customers as well. Pure slime!
What these guys were doing is obviously wrong. I wonder where the line is, exactly?
I mean, time is valuable and if you're taking the time to mod someone's phone for them, compensation isn't unreasonable.
Personally, the few times I've "redone" someone's phone, I've done it out of the goodness of my heart in the interest of paying it forward.
For an HD2, though? It doesn't get much easier than dropping some files onto an SD card, ya know? Doing my friend's MyTouch 3G was a pain simply because of the different models out there. Doing recon on a phone I don't own was enough of a pain to think about taking money but the notion of using someone else's work to profit was enough to make me think otherwise.
Thoughts?
Update:
the idiot actually called my phone wanting to know what my problem was! It seems that he was a little paranoid about the first phone call I made to him. I let him know that his CL ad was posted here on xda and people would be flagging his ads. He asked if I had posted his number, I told him "no but of course its in your ad so whatever".
This idiot actually said that what he is doing is no different than charging someone to fix a car. Saying, "mechanics use knowledge, parts and tools that they did not create". WTF? I tried for 20 min to help him understand that people are kind enough to make these roms and that he is wrong for using them for profit. At the end of the conversation I was right where I started, he just didn't get it. I've said it before and ill say it again, the world wasn't ready for the technology we have now and is you want proof, just walk into a room and ask how many techs are willing to help you with something........every idiot with an internet connection is the next Dave Wozniack (sorry if I spelled Woz's name wrong)
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Sleef said:
What these guys were doing is obviously wrong. I wonder where the line is, exactly?
I mean, time is valuable and if you're taking the time to mod someone's phone for them, compensation isn't unreasonable.
Personally, the few times I've "redone" someone's phone, I've done it out of the goodness of my heart in the interest of paying it forward.
For an HD2, though? It doesn't get much easier than dropping some files onto an SD card, ya know? Doing my friend's MyTouch 3G was a pain simply because of the different models out there. Doing recon on a phone I don't own was enough of a pain to think about taking money but the notion of using someone else's work to profit was enough to make me think otherwise.
Thoughts?
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people here usually lost their reasoning when seeing such topics. So don't bother having a constructive discussion on the time/energy spent on modding people's phones.
I wonder what HTC would think about people charging for this as it is a little naughty.
The devs don't charge, hell HTC probably get good ideas from them, so they're tolerated but if they had a list of people charging for this they might not look so kindly on them. Included is the unhappy customers who might have problems.
Karma's a ***** and I can see the day they WILL get ***** slapped back into the time before mobile phones...
jagpoag said:
Update:
the idiot actually called my phone wanting to know what my problem was! It seems that he was a little paranoid about the first phone call I made to him. I let him know that his CLUB ad was posted here on xda and people would be flagging his ads. He asked if I had posted his number, I told him "no but of course its in your ad so whatever".
This idiot actually said that what he is doing is no different than charging someone to fix a car. Saying, "mechanics use knowledge, parts and tools that they did not create". WTF? I tried for 20 min to help him understand that people are kind enough to make these roms and that he is wrong for using them for profit. At the end of the conversation I was right where I started, he just didn't get it. I've said it before and ill say it again, the world wasn't ready for the technology we have now and is you want proof, just walk into a room and ask how many techs are willing to help you with something........every idiot with an internet connection is the next Dave Wozniack (sorry if I spelled Woz's name wrong)
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
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His comaparison to mechanics fixing your car is stupid. Mechanics charge and fix cars with other peoples products but they pay for those products. What is he giving the developers who make the roms and builds? Taking your time to do something might be worth some compensation and that really depends if it requires a skill you have trained or studied for but something as simple as flashing and copying over a folder is not worth the crazy fees their charging especially for something that is made by developers for a community of smartphone users who can voluntarily donate. The guides are there for everyone to do this on their own. You dont need special training or a college degree to get android on an HD2. All the hard work has been done already by the developers. The rest is simple.
tantrum829 said:
His comaparison to mechanics fixing your car is stupid. Mechanics charge and fix cars with other peoples products but they pay for those products. What is he giving the developers who make the roms and builds? Taking your time to do something might be worth some compensation and that really depends if it requires a skill you have trained or studied for but something as simple as flashing and copying over a folder is not worth the crazy fees their charging especially for something that is made by developers for a community of smartphone users who can voluntarily donate. The guides are there for everyone to do this on their own. You dont need special training or a college degree to get android on an HD2. All the hard work has been done already by the developers. The rest is simple.
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This guy is one of those that talks down to people and tries to convince everyone around him that anything he does is of some alien skill that other humans just cant seem to grasp. I'm sure a lot of you know the type, the "gurus" as I've heard them called...lol. These people are all the same, google is the only "knowledge" they have on any subject at the end of the day.
I had fun with the guy over the phone to say the very least. He could not answer any of my questions at all, just wanted to keep insulting me and making inane excuses. As far as the mechanic comment, he also tried to compare what he is doing to the work performed by a barber shop Typical idiot with the money to open a store but not enough knowledge to actually do anything worth a crap for customers. I fix computers for people who have taken their PCs to guys like this all the time. They all have a lot of stock in the store, pretty lights and talk "over your head" to try and smoke screen the fact that they really dont know anything past formatting your hard drive and installing windows all over again to fix ANYTHING....its pathetic.
Anyways, I will continue to contact anyone I see posting things like this on CL when I see them just as I have been doing for years with people posting "I can jailbreak your IDevice for $" ads. I cant stop them all but if everyone would call them out when they see it being done, maybe they would wake up. Like I told the guy on the phone, I'm sure there are teenagers here at XDA that have a bright future and create ROMs for the community. It's bad enough that someone like him would use another persons work for profit but stealing from kids also?
I noticed I started this thread in the wrong section, I'm sorry about that. Thanks to whomever moved it for me.
richteralan said:
people here usually lost their reasoning when seeing such topics. So don't bother having a constructive discussion on the time/energy spent on modding people's phones.
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Heh. You're probably right.
I guess, ideally, if you're working on a phone that actually takes some time and effort to spiff up, you could say "Give me five bucks and put five bucks into (your dev here)'s paypal account."
Those are arbitrary figures but you get the idea. I'm sure scumbags will still profit without giving credit or a share of the loot but there's also the notion that some people will do it honestly.
I see your point guys but I cannot agree with you at all.
I'll say it with just a few words: capitalism, time and money. Those words should explain the whole situation.
What is more, I don't think it's just copying files to an SD Card. It takes a lot of time to test everything and to fix specific problems with the roms themselves. To know exactly what's the difference between a TMobile HD2, or Telstra HD2, etc.
I respect people's work here. I also try to donate to any person that makes my HD2 happy But I don't think you can criticise that guy's work. Personally, I've been more than one month spending my time on Android and I know for sure most people won't be able to do it the way I do. You're also working on borrowed hardware designed to run windows mobile and finally but most important you are working on other people's software (Android Kernel, Hi Mr. Google and thanks for that BTW) that made all of this possible.
Guys, think it this way. What's better? To have someone with experience taking all responsability working on your phone? Or to have a nice, expensive and useless brick (TMobile HD2 and .50 radios anybody?).
Ok, let the flame on me begin
This unfortunately isn't the first time I've these douchebags taking credit from our hardworking devs. Ill do my part and flag down their postings.
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
http://mcallen.en.craigslist.org/mob/2043216730.html
http://mcallen.en.craigslist.org/mob/2042750762.html
Sorry i don't get why most you are so upset when it comes to charging for a service. You r all talking about giving no credit and making money with other peoples work.
I have to say I am a experienced pc user but it took me a couple of days reading, researching to get my first build to work properly. Even now I have some pickups from time to time. Not talking about bricking phones while flashing a well working window build and a good radio Rom.
I totally agree with you that its kind of shabby to charge for other peoples work. But in this case the guy is responsible to get the phone up and running like his customers expect it. If he bricks a phone he has to replace it, if he breaks the phone physically he has to replace it, if his customer is unhappy with his work he has to refund and I haven't even mentioned the time he needs to get Android running, shipping the phone answering phone calls and so on.
It's like charging for fixing other peoples pc, console what ever... you get charged for the service. What do you think how much OS software is used out there and you get charged. Those people invest there time and effort to get something working what you can't do because you are not callable, don't have time, take the risk or any other reason you could think of. It's like those guys are selling instructions and telling you how to do it on your own bit don't take any responsibility if something is not working as expected. What do you think how many people go to service stores to get there cell phones fixed, updated, debranded or what ever? thousands every day and they get charged for it. What do you think those guys are using? You are right, tool that other people created and some of them they don't have to pay for.
Are you working without charge for your customers? You seems to be the welfare. Do you wanna come over and mow my lawn, clean my house and fan me some fresh air with a palm leaf?
$99 sounds much to us and even for me i won't take this service for that price. If somebody is willing to spent it, he should go ahead and do it. If somebody else is willing to offer the same service for a lower price, even better. And somebody is willing to do it without payment, perfect. But the last guy shouldn't complain if he is not able to pay his bills.
post is free for rant.
€dit: @jagpoag, you are a prick! sorry normally i don't call anybody i never spoke to, names he might get upset about. but your last post was just ridiculousness. Complaining about the wording, the argumentation, knowledge and language. You might wanna read your post again and reconsider your wording, spelling and so on. Ever thought about the fact that English is not the main language for somebody. oh no i forgot, you are American, just to bring up a little bit more preconceptions. Not everybody is as bright as you are figuring out technical thinks in the time you can. My mother can't, my sister can't, my boss can't and a whole lot of other people i know would kill there phones with inattention. they don't even want to figure out stuff like that, because they are not interested in it and are willing and able to pay somebody else for things they don't want any hassle with. I would have much more harsh words for you but i think i would get kicked out of a great place called xda-dev if i really say what i am thinking.
Sent from my HTC Leo running Android using XDA App

Mandatory "donations" for ROM access?

This is becoming more and more common. Does it bother anybody else? I mean i dont lose sleep over it, but it kind of ruins the "community" feel and turns things into more of a business.
Donations are slowly turning into payments. This is precisely why i PERSONALLY never believed in the word donation in the development world, but lets not get into that debate.
I mean, if a dev/dev team is really good, im sure they get more than enough donations to fund their work, seeing as though im always seeing people on the forums talk about how theyll donate or how much they donated. I feel like whats happening is a dev/dev team starts out strong, and at first is just soaking up the notoriety amongst users, and understandably so. But as time goes, and their knowledge and popularity grows, they realize "hey, we could probably make some serious money off this" but then they realize that that just goes against the whole "doing it in your free time" or "doing what we love doing" concepts, so they insist on continuing to label it a "donation".
Let me be clear, I have absolutely no problem with a dev/dev team expecting money in order to grant access to something that is popular. Thats what a lot of governments are founded on, and these guys definitely deserve a little spending money for all of the smiles they put on peoples faces. I just dont like the abuse of the word "donation" that takes place. Why dont you just say "you have to pay for it"? Cause thats pretty much what is going down......
This isnt directed at anyone in particular, im simply curious to see how other people feel about it.
I feel the same way. Label it as payment/charge/etc and it will be good. Just dont use the word donation when only a donation gets the user access to an area of forums, kernels, roms, other, software. Its just not correct to do
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
It's incredibly silly. In many cases these people are charging for tweaking something that they didn't create and don't even have the rights to redistribute.
When you get right down to it, every ROM here that's built off of one of the leaked Froyo builds is in murky territory. Although parts of those leaks are GPL'd, there are tons of proprietary Samsung bits in there, and if Samsung felt like it they could slap everybody with a C&D on redistributing that stuff.
On the one hand, the people who distribute leaks (and tweaked ROMs based off of those leaks) for free are taking risks by doing so, and they're doing it to help the community. But on the other, you have people who take those leaks, apply their own tweaks to them, and then charge for the completed product. Those guys are basically profiting from the work that others took a risk in releasing to the public, which is ridiculous.
The best way to deal with it is to not simply not "donate" to people who pull such shenanigans.
JeremyNT said:
It's incredibly silly. In many cases these people are charging for tweaking something that they didn't create and don't even have the rights to redistribute.
When you get right down to it, every ROM here that's built off of one of the leaked Froyo builds is in murky territory. Although parts of those leaks are GPL'd, there are tons of proprietary Samsung bits in there, and if Samsung felt like it they could slap everybody with a C&D on redistributing that stuff.
On the one hand, the people who distribute leaks (and tweaked ROMs based off of those leaks) for free are taking risks by doing so, and they're doing it to help the community. But on the other, you have people who take those leaks, apply their own tweaks to them, and then charge for the completed product. Those guys are basically profiting from the work that others took a risk in releasing to the public, which is ridiculous.
The best way to deal with it is to not simply not "donate" to people who pull such shenanigans.
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Its very important that we dont mention names, to avoid flaming.....but i know exactly who you are talking about in particular....
The trend started with kingklick and everyone was all up in arms about it
But eventually the rest of the developers followed and now its OK for them and they accept it LOL hypocrites
This is another reason making my decision on NS much easier
Some real development will be underway i miss my N1 XDA support back in the day
Not that i dont appreciate what others have done here just most of it wasn't my cup of tea with exception of Eugene's work
But he left for a reasonable reason too much BS but his work is still freely available
It would be nice to hear a devs take on this but on the other hand this could just start a huge ordeal I understand what you guys are saying but I don't think this thread is going to help any development at all in fact it may even be counter productive the dev group is growing for the vibrant but I wouldn't say there are enough devs to start pissing people off and making them lose interest in xda all together if its not one thing its another nothing is free in this world eventually if you want something ahead of everyone else you gotta pony up the cash I went to a street fair once at the gate was a booth labeled donations they didn't deny me access when I refused to pay but I didn't enjoy the full access everyone else did when they received theyre wrist bands that got them free drinks your not paying to get in your paying for the cause and the work and the time it takes to create something that millions can enjoy ......i wouldn't get to butt hurt about it its the way of the world be it in day to day life forums or whatever else you think it applies to just my opinion we're all entitled to them I suppose
V5 custom vibrant
I take back allot of what i said apparently some are still releasing roms here
willsnews said:
It would be nice to hear a devs take on this but on the other hand this could just start a huge ordeal I understand what you guys are saying but I don't think this thread is going to help any development at all in fact it may even be counter productive the dev group is growing for the vibrant but I wouldn't say there are enough devs to start pissing people off and making them lose interest in xda all together if its not one thing its another nothing is free in this world
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In terms of my opinion, and what im trying to say, the paragraph in bold in the OP highlights my exact problem. I understand the concept and the need for devs to ask for money in whatever form, and i have absolutely no issue with that. But thats what they are, PAYMENTS. The only thing im questioning is why they insist on calling them donations. They are not donations when they are in the format of a transaction.
do·na·tion noun \dō-ˈnā-shən\
Definition of DONATION
: the act or an instance of donating: as a : the making of a gift especially to a charity or public institution b : a free contribution : gift
trans·ac·tion noun \tran-ˈzak-shən, tran(t)-ˈsak-\
Definition of TRANSACTION
1a : something transacted; especially : an exchange or transfer of goods, services, or funds <electronic transactions>
Theres just something about it that seems a bit unethical to me, almost like a bit of a marketing scam. "Donate" has a much friendlier, less threatening tone to it than "payment". Maybe theres a mindset in place that people will be more inclined to "donate" rather than "pay". Im just trying to figure out why they cant just call it like it is.
Regardless of how you may feel about it, theres no question that sometimes it feels like our "community" is faltering in favor of making money.
------------
In terms of the devs leaving XDA because of threads like this? i mean come on, we are talking about word definitions here...not insulting peoples families.....
Donation: ASK for CONTRIBUTIONS DURING development
Payment: REQUIRE COMPENSATION for COMPLETED product
I haven't ever seen a developer require payment for a complete product here on XDA. Some give early access to buggy ROMs and kernels, but that's it.
I don't. see anyone asking for a payment to get a full version of a rom. some gets it early when you donated but still the ones who didn't still gets the rom later. If that's how they want it to be then let it be.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Used to have "buy me a beer" links up at the most a couple of years ago. Seems there was more collaboration among devs like LucidRem who was super nice on G1 apps to SD. Was constantly being tweaked by seperate devs to get a better partition solution for example.
Don't blame me, blame my keyboard's autocorrection algorithm.
Any developer that does that is very clearly breaking the law. They could be very easily sued by anyone that cared.
Haha, even if that's true, which I don't think it is.....i think that would be taking things just a tad too far
Sent from my pocket rocket!
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM WITH IT!!
I have been on with Android since Day 1. XDA and the developers who come here are the only reason I am so passionate about my phone and android. Without these 2 things a large part of my "hobby" would be severely hampered.
Developers do a tremendous amount for us. Can you imagine being on JI6 right now? I feel that they get barely anything in donations.... if this is a method for them to beta with a small group and reward those who support them/him, than I think they should take advanatage of that... and if it leads to developers earning a bit more than they would normally, awesome for them.
Cause you know what....
When developers are happy.... WE are all happy!!!
I mean come on, they release them to the public anyway.... is it okay for you to whine about not getting something sooner, that you had no part in creating/making.... what gives YOU the right???
PS, both R14 and Nero_Beta are very tasty... can't wait to get my hands on Axura 2.2 soon also.
maybe we should point out who the REAL developers are, and who are the wannabe's like people that take others work and just theme it.
Maybe just maybe then, these people that are rushing to hand over fists of money would donate to the people that actually put things out, and not the winzip blender wannabe's.
I "had" respect for some of these people until I first hand decompiled their rom to find out it wasn't there's at all. Adding a theme and transitions to Windows, does not make it mine.. how hard can that be to understand?
s15274n said:
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM WITH IT!!I mean come on, they release them to the public anyway.... is it okay for you to whine about not getting something sooner, that you had no part in creating/making.... what gives YOU the right???.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i really hope youre not referring to me......i have a good paying a job and if i really wanted to pay for a ROM i would, but i dont......check my signature, i AM still runnning JI6, i dont use Macnut or Obsidian (neither ever required donations). I am speaking purely based on observation, not personal experience.
I mean if i was stuck stuck with JI6 forever, i wouldnt be thatdisappointed, because i have my phone setup exactly how i want it. Im not a fan of leaked ROMs, never have been. So i wont be waiting up all night waiting for Nero to go public either.
Please dont confuse me for one of those crybabies who just HAS to get their greedy fingers on the newest ROM right away just to be with the "in-crowd"...thats not what im about
s15274n said:
if this is a method for them to beta with a small group and reward those who support them/him, than I think they should take advanatage of that... and if it leads to developers earning a bit more than they would normally, awesome for them
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Click to collapse
please dont misunderstand me, you have to read carefully what im trying to say....i have absolutely NO ISSUE with devs receiving money....none. they often deserve it. i just dont like the way the concept of "donating" is presented sometimes. The way you outlined it ^^ is a great way of wording the way it SHOULD be appraoched....unfortunately it isnt always approached that way, and THOSE are the instances im referring to in my OP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License
This issue is that a custom ROM is built upon the work of thousands of other people that all licensed their work under the GPL because they wanted to it to be used that way. When someone takes their work and sells it, they are expressly misusing the work of others.
I think its fantastic that people are willing to put their time into developing ROMs, but at the same time it's very disrespectful and illegal to not follow the wishes of the people whose work the ROMs are built on. Ultimately, ROMs are very, very minor tweaks to what has been the result of almost twenty years and millions of man hours of work. If you want to be a part of that, that's great, but you have to play by the rules. After all, those rules are what made ROM development possible.
I can understand why they do it. Most people don't know how many hours go into just developing a theme let a long a full rom. So I understand them wanting to make some money for their time, but I also do agree with people who think they should not have a donation requirement to download, they should label it as a pay to download / theme or rom.
Here is an example of why I think devs do a required donation:
Here is the Nexus Theme I made (Did not ask for donations): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=860198
To date this has had: 318 downloads
Amount of donations recieved: $0
Time Spent making it: 10+ Hrs
Here is the Frobuntu theme I made (Asked for Donations): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=846285
To date this has had: 333 Downloads
Amount of donations recieved: $20
Time Spent Making it: 20+ hrs
So I can see why they do this. It makes a difference when you ask for the donations, but... again there should not be a required donation. That is called "selling" your rom/theme. They could do it the way I did the Frobuntu rom where I "Highly Suggested" a donation amount in big letters in the header of the post, but still gave it away to those who cannot pay.
Just my two cents. I would never flame or look down upon a dev for choosing to require a donation, that is their decision. I just choose not to do that myself.
No offense but most custom roms have a couple issues, needing to be fixed in the next release, meaning in a few days your gonna have to flash again, then the cycle continues, another bug so needing a new release... But the new release isn't faster, better or any cooler than the release before...lol
I'm on stock jk6 with my tweaks, my mods, and my setup, I was on customs for a bit, but all this donation crap has made me not wanting to try custom roms from anyone here, especially with all the drama :d
Needless to say I've never donated anything other than to xda itself..... I would never give my money to people just doing this for fun just like I do.... Donate to me then lol...
Anyways, id advise against donating to get a early release that ain't any better than the one before....lol
All I can say is suckeeeeers... Sorry but true, you have been hustled...
P.s. Anyone with a donate to me sign in their sig or whatever are completely retarded imo..... Lol

[???]Captain Obvious asks a dumb question

OK here goes, the question that is probably obvious to alot of the dev types on these forums, and maybe to some of the non as well. (And yes I full expect to get flamed throughout this thread for my thoughts on this so bring it on).
Question?
Has the business model of the world become so internallized that companies such as our beloved samsung *cough cough choke* , and tmobile really think that they can turn a a semi-blind eye (yes I know that they are aware we root, and flash custom roms) to the incredible talent that is out there? And that becasue they are the giant that the masses will still support them?
Now my thoughts
Samsung has taken months to produce a version of froyo that they could put out to the masses, I really do believe that tmobile plays a heavy part in that as well, adding the bloat and crap that we inevidably remove. Both of them together are to blame.
Now at the same time we have these teams of programmers and graphic artists, designers, and coders that within days (sometimes hours) of new source being leaked they have built stable, custom roms, themes, mods, kernels, lagfixes,,,etc. And these make our phones into what samsung could have only dreamed about.
Also you will never convince me that the leaks are not at times done to help samsung, tmobile, or whoever fix a problem they can't figure out INTERNALLY. (back to the internal business question again)
Now stay with me and remember that I am only questioning big business practices and arrogance,,,don't hate on me!!!
To me the answer to all of this is obvious in the dreamwold state that I am in, so here is what I really don't understand,,
Why are Samsung and T-Mobile not contracting with Teams like Team Whiskey, and Master to build custom roms, with designers like Jdan, and Tonicacid to build themes, with Eugene and Krylon360, chainfire, Whitehawkx, and supercurio, to build custom kernels, and modems? (I know i missed alot of talent,,,sorry if I missed you)
Yes, I like having the opportunity to get all this for free. (BTW I have at one time or another donated to almost everyone I mentioned above. If i use your stuff and like it I pay for it) Giving the source code to these people and contracting them to build freely (freedom is the key to the builds) would benefit everyone I think. I would pay $10 for a rom, $5 for a cool theme, and $2or $3 for a cool mod.Doesnt sound like much, but the quantity of those out there doing it would generate a sizeable amount of money. In fact I am sure that there are people with the means to request a complete custom setup for the right price, and you know that to have a truly one of a kind set up with custom icons coloring and such people would pay for it. And if these were available in a controlled setting that johnny homeowner could do safely, or have done at a store, the possibilities are limitless.
I can understand the potential liability of people flashing their phones, and bricking, but I'm sure that problem could be somehow solved (to a point there are always stupid people out there).
Ideas? Thoughts? Rants?,,,
I am now officially off my sopabox, let the hating begin,,,,,
Let me tell you why, because people who works at sansumg...for them its a job. On the other hand for the devs here, its a passion or hobbit. When is the last time you see someone going to their office and enjoys their work? So they dont work as fast or even.slacks off here and there. Not many right? Also. The dev here can get away with posting rom that bricks because they usually have a disclaimure reliefing them of responsibilities, samsung doesnt get that with tmobile or the public thus it takes them longer to make sure everything works, and because of that they cant try more radical approches like those being incorporated into the roms here. Monetary support is also a factor, supporting an old phone doesnt make you money, unless you charge for firmware update like apple used to.
Like any other big business there are many different players with many different desires. That's the game of politics... They have to take into account the liability they could take on by using something that could cost them too much money....
That being said...I completely agree with you! They need to take on the talent that the world has to offer. Android is Open Source for a reason...to allow for everyone to throw their ideas at it. Google has given everyone the opportunity to show what they can do. I appreciate the Devs we have here on XDA. If anything I would like to thank all the hard working Devs & XDA for giving us a centralized place to access all the riches the world has to offer.
PaiPiePia said:
The dev here can get away with posting rom that bricks because they usually have a disclaimure reliefing them of responsibilities, samsung doesnt get that with tmobile or the public thus it takes them longer to make sure everything works, and because of that they cant try more radical approches like those being incorporated into the roms here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly the reason. Let's not pretend that everything the devs do here is perfect. It's not.
PaiPiePia said:
The dev here can get away with posting rom that bricks because they usually have a disclaimure reliefing them of responsibilities
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hang on there PeePants. These devs are GIVING their work away! They do their best to beta release them first! And there is almost NO SUCH THING AS "A ROM THAT BRICKS YOUR PHONE" since it is so easy to Odin back.
pdefazio said:
This is exactly the reason. Let's not pretend that everything the devs do here is perfect. It's not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nor do you have any right to demand perfection. Maybe that's why they call it 'Development'!!!
The devs on here for the most part do it as a hobby. The amount of work whether it be hours or days, that goes into some of these roms ANNDDDD(for emphasis) the UPDATTTEESSS, we as a consumer would say eff that I can't afford this anymore.
Big business is in the market of making money with as little effort or cost as possible. Hardware is cheap, easy and linear so they grab the consumers attention by advertising this amazing machine's specs. The "average consumer guy" just sees blinking lights and "I am a man because of my awesome phone specs" stuff and buys it no questions asked. Out of 50 customers I can only assume 1 might come in and ask which version of Android is running on their phone.
We are a small SMALL % of their market so why would they bring in these amazing teams to update and develop if they can pay someone to get as little as possible on the table to satisfy the average consumer.
You want to share with the world? Get a 3rd party license to develop with T-Mobile and/or Samsung, which btw will cost you Millions, then hire on these guys and sell their "labor"(since Android is open source). Once all that is done, tell me how you plan to turn a profit at $5-10 or even $20 a ROM. Again, once contracted the devs will be charging for updates(labor) as well.
No flaming needed here, actually a good conversation.
Yes, they are ignoring talent, but companies don't give a **** about anything until it starts impacting their bottom line.
I've always been a firm of believer of "vote with your money." This is the first Samsung smart phone I've ever bought and every month that passes with Samsung ignoring the GPS issue cements my thought that it will also be the last.
We can lament all we want, but if next year you go and buy another Samsung phone/product, you're doing nothing to change things.
No.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but no dev that doesn't work with samsung can't.
The devs here are strictily MODIFIERS.
samsung is.the.creator.
Without them we have nothing.
They leak out kernels, and our devs modify to make it faster and stable.
NO dev here can make drivers for your phone.NO DEV can make kernels without using something from samsung.
I understand why u all hate samsung but be thankful their atleast giving leaks.
Also I agree with the guy above the devs here have an excuse , "u didn't read the disclaimer"
Also there have been plenty of roms that brick users.
hellcatrydr said:
Hang on there PeePants. These devs are GIVING their work away! They do their best to beta release them first! And there is almost NO SUCH THING AS "A ROM THAT BRICKS YOUR PHONE" since it is so easy to Odin back.
Nor do you have any right to demand perfection. Maybe that's why they call it 'Development'!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously you can't hold a proper, intelligent and civil conversation without resorting to name calling and fanboy attitude. This is the second time you called me pee pants for no reason, you sir are going on my ignore list.
blizzard1017 said:
The devs on here for the most part do it as a hobby. The amount of work whether it be hours or days, that goes into some of these roms ANNDDDD(for emphasis) the UPDATTTEESSS, we as a consumer would say eff that I can't afford this anymore.
Big business is in the market of making money with as little effort or cost as possible. Hardware is cheap, easy and linear so they grab the consumers attention by advertising this amazing machine's specs. The "average consumer guy" just sees blinking lights and "I am a man because of my awesome phone specs" stuff and buys it no questions asked. Out of 50 customers I can only assume 1 might come in and ask which version of Android is running on their phone.
We are a small SMALL % of their market so why would they bring in these amazing teams to update and develop if they can pay someone to get as little as possible on the table to satisfy the average consumer.
You want to share with the world? Get a 3rd party license to develop with T-Mobile and/or Samsung, which btw will cost you Millions, then hire on these guys and sell their "labor"(since Android is open source). Once all that is done, tell me how you plan to turn a profit at $5-10 or even $20 a ROM. Again, once contracted the devs will be charging for updates(labor) as well.
No flaming needed here, actually a good conversation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Learn from this guy, he saw the situation from the same point of view as me, and he expanded on it rather than flaming.
Thread Locked

Unbeliveable - People selling "manuals" on ebay to flash HD2 to WP7

I just searched HD2 on ebay, and found THIS.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Windows-Phone-7...ell_Phones&hash=item35b0189863#ht_4192wt_1139
Unbelievable.
These people are selling MANUALS comprised of probably everything found on XDA on how to flash the HD2 to run Windows Phone 7.
Taking people's hard work on this forum, and selling it for a profit.
Omg .. over 300 Sold ?!
And $25 ?!
$25 x 300 = $7500 ?
Reported the seller
Edit:
7500 not 750
My bad .
Cool, may give that a go myself , right little earner
Seriously though, why do people keep making these topics? We know that people are selling the info on ebay, they are even selling a flashing service, its nothing new and has been happening for years.
The people who buy these services/product are generally the people who NEED to buy them because they cant use "search" buttons or google etc so simply dont have the mental capcity to use XDA or flash tehir phone and if somebody can earn some money while providing that service I say good on them, may do it myself (joke, have no need to).
TheATHEiST said:
Cool, may give that a go myself , right little earner
Seriously though, why do people keep making these topics? We know that people are selling the info on ebay, they are even selling a flashing service, its nothing new and has been happening for years.
The people who buy these services/product are general-ly the people who NEED to buy them because they can use "search" buttons or google etc so simply dont have the mental capcity to use XDA or flash tehir phone and if somebody can earn some money while providing that service I say good on them, may do it myself (joke, have no need to).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol .. That is just awesome,
Comment of the day
response
that fella TheATHEiST has right.
Net is really huge place, (at lesst it is extremley huge virtual place, even it ficically might be small as one average appartement), and google has potential to give You informtation on any subject one might need. So if someone has no will, knowledge, patience, and again will to do it why not earn some money on that one.
All guys here are doing their best to make manuals, explaining flashing procedures, breewing their own tastes of winmo, android, or anything else. And there is smartass that do not wish to read these posts carefully, and do it on his own.
So be it, if he has enough money let the people do it for money. After all, do not we all live for money, and from money?
TheATHEiST said:
Cool, may give that a go myself , right little earner
Seriously though, why do people keep making these topics? We know that people are selling the info on ebay, they are even selling a flashing service, its nothing new and has been happening for years.
The people who buy these services/product are generally the people who NEED to buy them because they cant use "search" buttons or google etc so simply dont have the mental capcity to use XDA or flash tehir phone and if somebody can earn some money while providing that service I say good on them, may do it myself (joke, have no need to).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
branitelj91 said:
that fella TheATHEiST has right.
Net is really huge place, (at lesst it is extremley huge virtual place, even it ficically might be small as one average appartement), and google has potential to give You informtation on any subject one might need. So if someone has no will, knowledge, patience, and again will to do it why not earn some money on that one.
All guys here are doing their best to make manuals, explaining flashing procedures, breewing their own tastes of winmo, android, or anything else. And there is smartass that do not wish to read these posts carefully, and do it on his own.
So be it, if he has enough money let the people do it for money. After all, do not we all live for money, and from money?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally disagree, people that are doing things such as this are takinv advantage of someone elses hard work. The Devs that make the ROMs, HSPL, and MAGLD put alot of hours of hard thought and sleepless nights into developing thrir software. If they are kind enough to do this and not demand payment from others to use their work yhen what gives anyone else the right to charge people to install it for them. Yes there is people out there that are too lazy or too mentaly challenged to use google, or search XDA. But people offering this kind of service is just a further henderance to them and XDA. By offering these services to people lile that it is allowing them to be complaciant and not learn to think for themselves. People in general now days do not know hpw to think for themselves cause society has taught them they don't have to someone else will. If people were required to actually use their on brain power we as a society will grow and people might actually see that the way the world is and operates is not as normal and needed as we all think. As far as money goes yes we all have to have money to live but this is a vice of our own making. Money is not a natural accurring thing, it is not a real resource. It at the core of degrodation of our society and us as a race.
I'm out of work and skint maybe i need to do something like this to get myself a few quid just joking id never do anything like that,eBay need to take this down ASAP.
kawazaki said:
Omg .. over 300 Sold ?!
And $25 ?!
$25 x 300 = $750 ?
Reported the seller
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you got your math wrong.... that guy has made more than $7500!!! I can't believe so many have sold for that much money!
ahum kuch kuch $7500
At this point he has sold 446 of them... most for $25. So he's made over $10,000 in less than a week, I think. Ridiculous. I wonder if he even donated to the devs.
TheATHEiST said:
Seriously though, why do people keep making these topics? We know that people are selling the info on ebay, they are even selling a flashing service, its nothing new and has been happening for years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, flashing service is fine, because you're lazy to do it yourself so you pay someone else to do the work for you.
There's other topics on this?
I didn't know.
I searched!
T-Macgnolia said:
I totally disagree, people that are doing things such as this are takinv advantage of someone elses hard work. The Devs that make the ROMs, HSPL, and MAGLD put alot of hours of hard thought and sleepless nights into developing thrir software. If they are kind enough to do this and not demand payment from others to use their work yhen what gives anyone else the right to charge people to install it for them. Yes there is people out there that are too lazy or too mentaly challenged to use google, or search XDA. But people offering this kind of service is just a further henderance to them and XDA. By offering these services to people lile that it is allowing them to be complaciant and not learn to think for themselves. People in general now days do not know hpw to think for themselves cause society has taught them they don't have to someone else will. If people were required to actually use their on brain power we as a society will grow and people might actually see that the way the world is and operates is not as normal and needed as we all think. As far as money goes yes we all have to have money to live but this is a vice of our own making. Money is not a natural accurring thing, it is not a real resource. It at the core of degrodation of our society and us as a race.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ That is exactly what I'm talking about, and my feeling and thought when I started this thread!!
Sizzlincok said:
Well, flashing service is fine, because you're lazy to do it yourself so you pay someone else to do the work for you.
There's other topics on this?
I didn't know.
I searched!
^ That is exactly what I'm talking about, and my feeling and thought when I started this thread!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you made a pm to the mods? Ask them too what is the stand of the community in this regard.
T-Macgnolia said:
I totally disagree, people that are doing things such as this are takinv advantage of someone elses hard work. The Devs that make the ROMs, HSPL, and MAGLD put alot of hours of hard thought and sleepless nights into developing thrir software. If they are kind enough to do this and not demand payment from others to use their work yhen what gives anyone else the right to charge people to install it for them. Yes there is people out there that are too lazy or too mentaly challenged to use google, or search XDA. But people offering this kind of service is just a further henderance to them and XDA. By offering these services to people lile that it is allowing them to be complaciant and not learn to think for themselves. People in general now days do not know hpw to think for themselves cause society has taught them they don't have to someone else will. If people were required to actually use their on brain power we as a society will grow and people might actually see that the way the world is and operates is not as normal and needed as we all think. As far as money goes yes we all have to have money to live but this is a vice of our own making. Money is not a natural accurring thing, it is not a real resource. It at the core of degrodation of our society and us as a race.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look dude that argument is totally rediculous and has nothing to do with the price of fish.
These guys are not sellling the "ROMS" if they was that would be different, What they are selling is a collection of knowledge and/or a service.
By your logic you couldnt provide support service or collection of knowledge for linux!!
This is basically exactly the same as going out and buying a book on linux or paying somebody to install/setup linux for you, Its 100% the same in EVERY aspect since all the info you need is freely available on the net already same as THIS is.
Again, Nobody is selling the Devs work they are selling a service or info. For example I have my own webhosting business renting/setting up dedicated servers but I am a n00b when it comes to linux so I pay other people to do it for me. I know I can get this info on the net for free but I cant be bothered and simply get somebody else to do it.
PS. Did you ever think that it could even be Devs that are doing some of these ebay sales??
TheATHEiST said:
Look dude that argument is totally rediculous and has nothing to do with the price of fish.
These guys are not sellling the "ROMS" if they was that would be different, What they are selling is a collection of knowledge and/or a service.
By your logic you couldnt provide support service or collection of knowledge for linux!!
This is basically exactly the same as going out and buying a book on linux or paying somebody to install/setup linux for you, Its 100% the same in EVERY aspect since all the info you need is freely available on the net already same as THIS is.
Again, Nobody is selling the Devs work they are selling a service or info. For example I have my own webhosting business renting/setting up dedicated servers but I am a n00b when it comes to linux so I pay other people to do it for me. I know I can get this info on the net for free but I cant be bothered and simply get somebody else to do it.
PS. Did you ever think that it could even be Devs that are doing some of these ebay sales??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok first of nobody said anything about fish, where did that come from?
Secound yes this is just the selling of a collection of information. But there is plenty others out there that are actually selling the ROMs. These sites have people ship their HD2 to them and install the ROM's for tbem, this is true with Android ROMs and WP7 ROMs. This doesn't take into account for the people that don't even have a website but are just local people that are charging people to do this. Not to long someone in the T-mobile forums posted about a guy that was doing it in Hawaii and charging like a hundred bucks a pop. So you see no matter if it is the selling of the info on how to do it or the selling of the Actually ROMs and installation services. This is a total fleecing of people. Best example is this, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a liftime. If you learn it yourself and do the research yourself it is much more fullfilling.
As for your suggestion about my logic and it not being right to provide support for Linux. You totally miss uderstood my point. This is not what I am trying to say. What I am trying to say is that poeple have become too lazy and brain dead to do things for themselfs anymore. This is why people selling books and offering services do so well. I mean yeah it is easier let someone else do the work or gather the info for you but if you do these things yourself then you have a much better working knowledge and comprehention of it. That is one of the reasons for open source projects so everyone can benefit from it, gain knowledge from it, and maybe even help improve it. You youself said you are a noob to Linux and can't be bothered by it. If you did the research and work then you wouldn't have to pay someone to do it for you but yet you don't want to envest the time to do it. So this is a fault of your own. Now yes I know life is hecktic andit is sometimes hard to find the time to do such things but stop and think everyone always seems to find time to go to the moviesor watch a TV show. So you see if a persontruly wants something they will make time for it just as they make time to do other activities that want to do if it is truly important to them.
No I had not thought about it might be a dev selling these guides and stuff but to be honest if it was I truly beleive they would plainly state this fact to everyone. Cause this would help sell the product. So I truly doubt it is a dec.
Every time someone posts a link to these sales, they're just drumming up free advertising for the seller.
Don't like what he's doing? DO NOT LINK TO THE SALE.
Grats on putting money in his pocket.
T-Macgnolia said:
Ok first of nobody said anything about fish, where did that come from?
Secound yes this is just the selling of a collection of information. But there is plenty others out there that are actually selling the ROMs. These sites have people ship their HD2 to them and install the ROM's for tbem, this is true with Android ROMs and WP7 ROMs. This doesn't take into account for the people that don't even have a website but are just local people that are charging people to do this. Not to long someone in the T-mobile forums posted about a guy that was doing it in Hawaii and charging like a hundred bucks a pop. So you see no matter if it is the selling of the info on how to do it or the selling of the Actually ROMs and installation services. This is a total fleecing of people. Best example is this, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a liftime. If you learn it yourself and do the research yourself it is much more fullfilling.
As for your suggestion about my logic and it not being right to provide support for Linux. You totally miss uderstood my point. This is not what I am trying to say. What I am trying to say is that poeple have become too lazy and brain dead to do things for themselfs anymore. This is why people selling books and offering services do so well. I mean yeah it is easier let someone else do the work or gather the info for you but if you do these things yourself then you have a much better working knowledge and comprehention of it. That is one of the reasons for open source projects so everyone can benefit from it, gain knowledge from it, and maybe even help improve it. You youself said you are a noob to Linux and can't be bothered by it. If you did the research and work then you wouldn't have to pay someone to do it for you but yet you don't want to envest the time to do it. So this is a fault of your own. Now yes I know life is hecktic andit is sometimes hard to find the time to do such things but stop and think everyone always seems to find time to go to the moviesor watch a TV show. So you see if a persontruly wants something they will make time for it just as they make time to do other activities that want to do if it is truly important to them.
No I had not thought about it might be a dev selling these guides and stuff but to be honest if it was I truly beleive they would plainly state this fact to everyone. Cause this would help sell the product. So I truly doubt it is a dec.
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people sending the HD2 to the person and getting it back flashed with WP7 or Android is selling a flashing service along with expertise, it is not selling the ROM, the only way this would be illegal or immoral is if they guy knew how to flash the ROM but did not know where the ROM was and someone said "I'll sell you the download link" or something like that, otherwise this is totally legit. Jailbreaking an iPhone takes 5 seconds in some cases and in most less than 10 minutes, yet people charge out the ass for it.
It is totally legit and I don't see any devs complaining about it, it's actually a smart way to make some spare change.
orangekid said:
people sending the HD2 to the person and getting it back flashed with WP7 or Android is selling a flashing service along with expertise, it is not selling the ROM, the only way this would be illegal or immoral is if they guy knew how to flash the ROM but did not know where the ROM was and someone said "I'll sell you the download link" or something like that, otherwise this is totally legit. Jailbreaking an iPhone takes 5 seconds in some cases and in most less than 10 minutes, yet people charge out the ass for it.
It is totally legit and I don't see any devs complaining about it, it's actually a smart way to make some spare change.
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Ok guys I am sorry I am just the kind of person that does not like paying someone to do something I can do myself. I was taught as a mid growing up that knowledge is valuable and that a person that will put forth an effort to learn and do for themself is to be respected. I have always strived to learn things for myself and do things myself. Because of this I have become quit knowledgeable in several different fields including my career as a Electrician. I have learned how to fix my own cars, do repairs to my own house, bow to grow ny own food, generate my own electricity, how to mantain and for the most part solve software problems on my computer, and know I am learning all I can about the HD2 I have. You se I beleive in people being dependant as much as posible on themselves. But sadly this is not the case of our modern society.
Now as for it not being legit I still say no it is not because for them to even be able to gather the information on how to install Andriod or WP7 and then creat and sell a guide on it. the devs had to figure out how to do this and share this information for free with everyone else. Also to provide a installation service they have to utilize sofrtwarw such as HSPL and MAGLD both of wich were created by DFT. This software is not copy righted and is not sold. So in both cases they are selling something they put no real work into except for some reading and reasearch. If they had to perchase such softeare are information and then use such information and software to make money to me that wiuld be more exceptable. Also they are selling the ROMs cause without the ROMs they can not perform such services therefor the ROMs are part of the services that they are selling. Yes it is a good way to make some spare money but it is not moral to me, and they are doing more than making spare money they are making a killing.
If the devs or not complaining then I do not know why I can not speak for them. But if I was a dev I would be complaining and complaining big time.
It's not hard to rationalize this at all.
If people are dumb enough to ebay a manual on how to flash WP7/android onto their HD2, then they deserve to get ripped off for something they can do for free.
The only thing people can do is report the seller.
Went through some other products of his, he's selling the "software to unlock/jailbreak your iPhone". Hats off to him, he's a smart guy. Oh and he's made $12100 and counting.
Yeah I can not believe how much money he has made, it's amazing selling something so simple. And I agree with the post above comparing the sale to purchasing a manual on installing linux, the info is available for free but most people find it easier to read a how-to when going about it.

Selling android on craigslist

I found someone selling NAND android for the hd2 on craigslist..... pisses me off, so much work dev's put into this and people are selling it.... here's the ad: http://kansascity.craigslist.org/mob/2264692873.html
If this is not the correct place to post this, please move it, it is about nand android so I figured it would be okay here.... and in case he removes the ad because I instructed him to do so, here is the ad:
IF YOU HAVE A HTC HD2 THAT IS HAVEING PROBLEMS FREEZING LAGGING OR U JUST DONT LIKE THE WINDOWS 6.5 OS SYSTEM U CAN NOW UPGRADE TO ANDRIOD SENSE GINGERBREAD OR WINDOWS PHONE 7 ALL SYSTEMS RUN GREAT ANDRIOD ROMS COMES PRE ROOTED FREE WIFI HOTSPOT U CAN DOWNLOAD PAID APPS OF YOUR CHOICE. I WILL INSTALL RADIO UPGRADE FOR TMOBILE HSPA + 4G NETWORK. 4G HOTSPOT WORKS GREAT WITH GAME SYSTEMS 360 PS3 ECT UPGRADE ONLY TAKES ABOUT 30 MIN DEPENDING ON WHAT U WANT INSTALLED WILL MEET AT A DESIRED LOCATION THANK U. Call or text FOR MORE INFO EXPERT SERVICES 2 YR + 816-673-8835 anytime
I say any developers not happy about this give him a call!
I talked with him over text messaging and he claims that he does not know what XDA is and never heard of it....If any mods are interested in his personal info, I am going to have the name registered to this line in a few..... so he can be banned from XDA
yea theres a couple of those on craigslist here in the boston area also
And what he says in his ad about 4g..... does the radio upgrade make it 4g capable? if so, I wasn't aware that it did.....
Ya know... as disgusting as it is, he's not doing anything wrong. It's almost like saying that a mechanic charging to fix your car is ridiculous because they didn't even invent the parts, they're just using their technical know-how to fix it.
He's offering a service - to set up your phone with Android. Don't people pay to get Windows installed on their computers? Or Linux even? I mean, if there's a demand for a service, then there will be a supply of people who will charge for said service.
That being said, I hate how people are stupid enough to pay for this service when all the knowledge is out there for free and you'll be better off learning how to do it on your own because you become more knowledgeable and you can fix the phone on your own if there's some kind of software problem.
These kinds of services are rampant in the Los Angeles Area. These guys usually charge $20 a head. Gotta wonder how many people are dumb enough to shell out any amount of money for this kind of service.
I kind of do see a need out there for that kind of service though. Some folks would rather just fork over the $20 than risk screwing up their phone, and how many noob question threads are there from ppl who cant manage to flash a rom without help even after reading the stickies, etc. It kinda makes for less clutter in the forums, and people are glad to hand over a little cash for the garuntee that they get Android quick and easy. 2 things though:
These people should donate a certain amount of their profits to the devs who made their business possible.
And learning by doing makes you smarter. By reading and applying the knowledge gained, you are better preparing yourself for future challenges. There's always going to be a next cool phone, and today's lesson learned makes tomorrows challenge easier. I would never pay someone to make me dumber and lazier, I'm already dumb and lazy enough
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
The EBAY is full of those NAND builds. I once bought one to see whatsup and it was MDJ Ginger nand build...
diesburg said:
If this is not the correct place to post this, please move it, it is about nand android so I figured it would be okay here.... and in case he removes the ad because I instructed him to do so, here is the ad:
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Who in the hell are you to instruct someone to remove an ad off of Craigslist. Is it ****ed up, yeah, but you have absolutely zero right to instruct someone to do anything. Some people would rather pay someone rather than take the time to do it themselves. Some people could care less how they get to point B, just that they get there. Other people would rather pay someone to work on their phone so they don't have to deal with the stress of bricking their device. Anytime there is a dollar to be made, people are going to take advantage of the situation. This isn't the first time, and damn sure isn't going to be the last time.
That being said, hopefully, people that are charging to install Android on HD2's are donating a % of their income to the devs. Without them, it wouldn't be possible.
While were instructing people to do things, I'm instructing you to delete his phone number out of your post.
Diesberg,
Get off your horse before you fall off it. XDA and TW are awesome resources for this interest group but not for everyone. I could go on, but will just leave it with "you're wrong on this one".
CHEERS,
ASTRO
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
This subject has already been debated to death... some people rather pay to have it done instead of learning themselves. At least these craigslist sellers actually meet and do the flashing for you. To charge someone $20 to meet up with them and do the flashing isn't that unreasonable. What bothers me are the people on ebay selling the instructions for $20. One guy I saw made over $10,000 in less than a week selling instructions to install wp7 for $25 ea... I couldn't believe he sold that many.
It think plenty of right is reserved for someone to instruct him to take the ad down. As said above, a certain % of what he makes should be donated to developers, then it would be okay. But we know damn well that he won't donate anything. So I don't think it's right or should be done unless donations are gave to the developer of whatever software is being used. If you took all the time to make such a good rom such as typhoons cm7, I'm sure you wouldn't like someone selling it on an auction site.... but the ones who say this is okay I don't think are developers so you don't understand..... I'm not a developer but I would not be happy if I saw my rom being used for these services if I were the developer.....
Wow, you still don't get it. They don't sell any roms, they offer a service...
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Wow, I do get it. But I still feel like it shouldn't be done without a percentage going to developers.... at least cotulla.....(and I'm not even a huge fan of his work) it would not be possible for someone to sell such a service without the hard work of developers, at least the bootloader dev's. When someone charges to install windows... well, windows must be purchased first(at least for it to be legal) So microsoft gets their share for their work.... no dev is getting a share for his hard work when someone sells the installation service.... and I feel this is not right...... that is my opinion and I am entitled to it just like you are your opinion.......
diesburg said:
..... I'm not a developer but I would not be happy if I saw my rom being used for these services if I were the developer.....
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That's right, you're not a dev, so why are you tripping? Is Best Buys ripping off Microsoft because they charge someone to install windows? C'mon dude, you cannot be this dense.
diesburg said:
that is my opinion and I am entitled to it just like you are your opinion.......
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You are definitely entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to instruct someone to remove an ad off of Craigslist, or to post some random dudes phone number on a message board.
this is such an old topic!!! I've been seeing this since I got my first windows mobile phone(Tmobile dash) 3 years ago, shoot you can go to ebay and find tons of ads on buying roms and install services with tech support, and all it is someone online or a text file with step by step instructions on how to do it yourself flashing and modding.
Just because we know XDA and we know how things should be done in the mobile hacking world , it doesn't mean everybody does, or everybody cares, I agree the devs deserve a donation or a percentage of anybody making a profit but it's not going to happen, at least from those people!
I did not post some random dudes number to a message board, I copied and pasted the craigslist ad that this thread is about. Yes, the ad contained his number but that is info you can find on the internet anyways. (craigslist.org)
This topic and all the millions of variations of it over the years are absolutely ridiculous.
This is 100% exactly the same as somebody providing a linux installation/setup/configuration service and anybody who says otherwise simply doesn't have any common sense.
diesburg said:
I did not post some random dudes number to a message board, I copied and pasted the craigslist ad that this thread is about. Yes, the ad contained his number but that is info you can find on the internet anyways. (craigslist.org)
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It's F'ing retarded to post his info with the intentions of getting him harassed. Where is the "no thank you" button when you need one?
WorldWide60 said:
It's F'ing retarded to post his info with the intentions of getting him harassed. Where is the "no thank you" button when you need one?
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Goddamn WorldWide60, STFU! This topic may be old and we all have different opinions on the subject but no need to jump down this guys throat on every single one of his post!
I think it's rather shady that he's talking about installing "4g". What the hell is this loony talking about? That's the real issue here.
I guess there are two sides of the story its nice for people who have no knownledge how to do this but love android.

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