Database Users

[A THOUGHT] Copying in an Open Community

Android is open. That's why I have my Samsung Galaxy S, my Nexus One and my Sapphire.
I have these phones because the open community can do better than the professionals, and I am proud to be a member of a community that has recently hacked Froyo onto the G1, Android2HD2 (and other Winmo devices), created great skins and themes, rooted almost every droid to date, hacked google navigation to work in other countries etc etc etc.
There is amazing work being done is this community.
Kingklick was able to put out a lot of ROMs which satisfied a lot of people. Contributors to Cyanogenmod (disclaimer. notably not Cyanogen himself) and others (fans and friends - disclaimer. note lack of word fanboys - of cyanogenmod, disclaimer. plus some others too) have flamed and flamed away about Kangklick (notably via twitter - I have stopped following any of those jerks that clogged up my feeds with what could've - screw that - should've been settled MUCH more privately..I followed you guys for dev news or the occasional interesting insight into your real life, not your petty bickering, but you have every right to post what you like...hence why I stopped following you all, I didn't flame you...note 'bigger man').
Rule 12 of XDArules clearly states that using the work of others must be done with permission, independent of whether it is open source or not. If this is not upheld then the post will be bought down, it does not say the user will be banned. I would understand the formality of taking the post down and requesting Kingklick reposts the ROM with due credit, but I believe - note believe...implies opinion - that moderators may have been influenced by pressure from other (high ranking, public eye) members and thus did not adhere to normal or just (I do not know if not giving creds is normally treated in this way, but you will discover I believe it shouldn't be) protacol. Kingklick broke the rules of XDA, but then again I see his banning as the least contentious issue here.
I believe that members of the XDA community in the public eye (ie with large Twitter follower base) due to their work via XDA (no matter what you say, cyanogenmod may be based at its own domain, but it still posts at XDA to maintain its public profile and feed of the massive XDA userbase, and is hence in part bound by this) have a responsibility to follow the rules of XDA on XDA rules and disputes. I do not think this is something which can be policed ('I'm banning you Wes for Trolling Kingklick...on Twitter'... not gonna work) but I think it is a moral obligation (anyone that thinks the internet is not bound by morality should take a reality check...the reason why we have open source is essentially ethics).
Do we give credit to Linus Torvalds every time we distribute linux kernels or work to do with linux? Do we give credit to those that helped him create this base? Do we give credit to Google for creating Android? HTC? Our carriers? Martin Cooper for inventing the mobile phone and cell networks? Time Berners-Lee for inventing the internet, giving rise to this forum, Google and thus the Phones/Devices we love and use? The fact is we don't give credit where due (although you may say its obscure to thank these people, they DO deserve our thanks). None of the ROM chefs/coders give all credit where due, but a lot do in part, with those directly involved. But who still thanks the original rooters?
Kingklick has been declared a copier by the jury...I haven't delved through the evidence to confirm this...but shouldn't we be much more relaxed about copying in general? All users should be open about their work with Android, but they are not. If kingklick based a build off Cyanongenmod, and gave due credit for that, he would be called unoriginal, despite his attempts to make improvements. I also believe that there should be transparency, a log of all complaints of interest and the community told in a statement from the mods why someone was banned...at least in part (keeping gory details to themselves thank you very much).
Donations are generally given by 'end-users'...noobs who can flash and maybe do some work on the builds but their contributions are limited. End users generally want user experience, and reward devs with commendation and donations. If kingklick does work on a build which satisfies more users and he hence gets donations, is that stealing donations? No. The original dev works on an open source project knowing that their work is open, but the end user can reward as he/she likes. Perhaps kingklick developed his following due to his branding...he did always use words like FAST and STABLE and SMOOTH, but Apple do the same and they're not banned from trading despite the hyperbole.
I do not doubt that a lot of devs thanks fellow devs with donations. Cyanogen is well known for donating, as is kingklick, however a lot of donations come from end users, and if kingklick replaces a few files using winrar (something which I generally contest, I believe kingklick does a lot of great work) and that satisfies more end users by being fast and stable and smooth (or perceived as being so thanks to branding) then he can get donations for that, they are a gesture of satisfaction and goodwill.
Kingklick was immoral by not giving true credit, however I believe that he could have been warned and asked to give credit once he got back from his night out (whether that excuse, or what ever his actual excuse was, was true).
I also laugh at the accusation that kingklick does not fill a niche within the 'open'/'free' community. This should not result in grudges and flame wars, whether it is true or not. Kingklick did fill a niche in my opinion: reviewers (and consumers) see vanilla android as being sterile. Hell it is sterile, and it's never going to be as successful as others if it doesn't sort this out. Cyanogenmod and other big names are based off this sterile form of Android, but they don't delve into Sense UI and other alternative skins, mainly due to preferences or copyright problems etc, not that that stops them with other things. Kingklick did work with these and he filled his niche by delivering great, fast, usable roms of these whilst others sneered at them for being inefficient coding or whatever...geeky snobbery.
Kingklick also delivered various fixes and things which other groups did not. I won't list all of these and I am sure representatives of Cyanogenmob et al will say 'we were gonna fix these issues anyways' or 'that's redundant' or 'that was patchy code', but kingklick has contributed. Obviously we have to hold ethics above output, we can not say that 'his holiness' (inteneded to mock those who believe cyanogen alone is a god, not cyanogen himself) Cyanogen's contributions to android exempt him from following conduct, but we do a great job of driving away good developers with flaming and telling tales. Perhaps you'll say kingklick was not a good developer, Drizzy, even Haykuro etc etc, but I only flashed Cyanogenmod on my Nexus once and I didn't like it for various reasons (personal preference yada yada) but I kept going back for more kingklick...whether that's perceived speed and branding etc or just satisfaction.
King's desire roms are great, but we never mobbed, trolled and banned the poor guy for not giving creds to HTC. Surely the morality of our community using software like Rosie on the Nexus is more ethically questionable than a fellow member of XDA's work, since HTC is a firm which employs people. I bought a Nexus over the Desire because I knew I could still have Sense and a bigger dev community, however the cost included in the Desire which goes to the developers of Sense is hence forgone (perhaps indeirectly, I don;t know HTC internal funding); therefore I have - and anyone who has ever flashed a Sense ROM or devved with Sense - indirectly caused loss of welfare for people who rely of developing as their source of income, tehir families, communities and economies. Surely that is less ethical than not saying thank you, but XDA has no problem with that. Perhaps it is too small to notice, but it will have an indirect impact nonetheless.
Yes kingklick should've said his please and thank you, but I think it's community hyped double standards, pretensical courtesy (not that I wouldn't give creds, it's just that pleases and thank yous are nice, but not actually useful). A wise man once said 'there is no threshold for immorality', just because kingklick did a larger 'crime' than the rest of the community in not giving his thanks out, that does not exempt the other rule breakers (ie everyone), it just means their punishment should be less severe...we choose to ignore it because it's less direct or forgotten about.
In conclusion, I think we should start a 'contributors to Android' part of XDA, added to by mods or specifically appointed members of the community (like the portal). This could be informative and could mean that forgotten about contributors could not be forgotten, but their contributions immortalised in the open community of Android. Even if the contributions become redundant, they are the foundations for the next chapter in the Android story.
Finally. www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html is a very good read..and think about what AOSP stands for (I'll give you a clue...Android Open Source Project!). Can you steal what is open? What right have others to dictate what can and cannot be distributed in the open aspects of Android code (ie the underlying OS and vanilla UI...I'm not confused with Apps). Perhaps kingklick was guilty of plagiarism? But so is anyone that claims they worked really hard in that kernel without crediting Linus and leaving a donation link to his family or favourite charitable causes. Anyone that says I've reworked the UI without giving credits to The Astonishing Tribe for the original Android concepts which all UIs are based off...
Android is closed, that's why I question this 'community'.
I am not proud to be a member of this 'community'...right now.
Ps. Cyanogenmob was originally a typo (using words like mobbed in my piece...Freudian slip on the keyboard rather than fat finger syndrome)...but I kept it in as I thought it was funny...the Cyogenmob should replace team douche IMHO!
Pps. Originally posted in Android Dev general but moved here as its Nexus dev themed!

im proud of myself for actually completing this reading haha. interesting read though.

cheddie said:
im proud of myself for actually completing this reading haha. interesting read though.
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Im more proud of you for successfully quoting the entire thing...I might submit it for my dissertation next year

HazzBazz said:
Im more proud of you for successfully quoting the entire thing...I might submit it for my dissertation next year
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hahah thanks for bringing that to my attention. had to edit it lol

To be fair I posted the god darn epic rant/essay/post...my bad !

HazzBazz said:
To be fair I posted the god darn epic rant/essay/post...my bad !
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No, I posted it! I worked long and hard last week to write it out. I am accepting donations to cover my time spent though.

All this happens because altruism is evil in the sense that it is a lie. Altruists demand payment too, in the form of recognition, appreciation, respect, reputation, and all these similar thirst for prestige.
In NOT giving recognition to comrades In arms who share a common need for prestige, it is theft among kin, robbing prestige.
Prestige is indeed a rotten currency.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Touche...topical. Doesn't really do anything against my points, I am saying kingklick is guilty among many but they are appeased because they haven't got flames burning them. I do believe that kingklick should always give credit where due.

caysman said:
All this happens because altruism is evil in the sense that it is a lie. Altruists demand payment too, in the form of recognition, appreciation, respect, reputation, and all these similar thirst for prestige.
In NOT giving recognition to comrades In arms who share a common need for prestige, it is theft among kin, robbing prestige.
Prestige is indeed a rotten currency.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
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Good point...the fact is cyanogenmod wouldn't be as big with as many great ethusiastic devs without the praise it got...but is that a fair compromise for contributions...

I really think that the issue is the same as black droid. The Problem isn't that king copied the rom and redistributed it. The problem is that he did so claiming that it was his work based off of CM. When in reality he downloaded a a finished copy of CM, compiled by the CM team, and then changed a few lines the build.prop, renamed it and asked for donations. I personally can't see how that is helping the community at all. I really don't care about King one way or the other but I do think that the people who do the work should get credit for it. They spend countless hours writing code for us to have for FREE. Code you yourself says is better than what google puts out. They do this in their spare time and ask for nothing but recognition. You think that is wrong? I am amazed by this. Really I am.

HazzBazz said:
Good point...the fact is cyanogenmod wouldn't be as big with as many great ethusiastic devs without the praise it got...but is that a fair compromise for contributions...
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Don't misunderstand me. Payment is due, for sure, and payment makes our world go round, but I do wish it were not in the form of mousy prestige, rotten evil currency that it is. Money is a much better choice, but prestige seekers pretend to loathe $ probably because $ is less ambiguous.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

They do this in their spare time and ask for nothing but recognition. You think that is wrong? I am amazed by this. Really I am.
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But they do not explicitly ask for recognition do they? Even the great cyanogen does not do that, because once they impose recognition expressly as a mode of payment you would recognize that their asking for your adulation and love would seen a more demanding payment than asking for cash.
And also the inconvenience of the prestige seekers being more easily mistaken for all the money grabbing corporations which they demonize.
I'd make it clear that I have not wanted anything other than cyanogen's roms during my g1 days, and adulation I'd gladly pay, plus I have donated in money.
These guys made android exciting and formed PART of the inspiration for the paid android developers. It is unfortunate that the society's misconception of altruism as ' good' destroyed a lot of the language required to denounce it as the evil it actually is.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Gr8gorilla said:
I really think that the issue is the same as black droid. The Problem isn't that king copied the rom and redistributed it. The problem is that he did so claiming that it was his work based off of CM. When in reality he downloaded a a finished copy of CM, compiled by the CM team, and then changed a few lines the build.prop, renamed it and asked for donations. I personally can't see how that is helping the community at all. I really don't care about King one way or the other but I do think that the people who do the work should get credit for it. They spend countless hours writing code for us to have for FREE. Code you yourself says is better than what google puts out. They do this in their spare time and ask for nothing but recognition. You think that is wrong? I am amazed by this. Really I am.
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it was actually jubehs rom he did that with.....
@OP, Omitting credit and stealing are completely different things. kk downloaded jubehs rom and changed 5-10 files and claimed it as his own. when confronted with this, kk said he compiled it himself even though the evidence overwhelmingly pointed at the other direction. He claimed to have built it from asop, when all he did was take someones rom and change a few files. if he said he "cooked" the rom from another (even without saying who) he would have been ok. But he continued to lie after he was caught which is probably why the ban hammer was dropped.
Most of this plus the damning evidence is located in the g1 section.
Also, android does not follow the GNU licensing, it follows apache, and by default, the devs who release their material here are also released under apache. Apache allows people to see the source so they can better understand it to develop, but people who use the source to develop something from it are not required to open source their works. they are also allow to put their own terms which would include giving proper credit.
AFAIK xda mods actually work together to decide on what to do with offenders. i know thats what they did for the wrecking crew (though some mods were less fair than others -_- )
PS: i havent used cyanogen mod since like 3.6.8 before the C&D lol

The sad fact is, it takes money to live in the world today. A lot of these programmers make good money 9-5 at their day jobs. The average computer engineer spends about 100,000 dollars going to college then makes about 60-70k per year after. This is working on a salary basis probably putting 40-60 hours per week. After that they spend another 20+ writing code for us because they like to. I can completely understand the devs wanting someone who copied and renamed their work to be banned.
That would be like you taking Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, Calling it Circle of Fire and trying to sell it as your own. You would get sued, etc. Come on people how can you defend this guy, come on really?

Tl,dr the OP.
flybyme said:
Omitting credit and stealing are completely different things. kk downloaded jubehs rom and changed 5-10 files and claimed it as his own. when confronted with this, kk said he compiled it himself even though the evidence overwhelmingly pointed at the other direction. He claimed to have built it from asop, when all he did was take someones rom and change a few files. if he said he "cooked" the rom from another (even without saying who) he would have been ok. But he continued to lie after he was caught which is probably why the ban hammer was dropped.
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If this is true, he got what he deserved. I had a similar thing happen when I wrote a script for the iphone which gets about 75-100 downloads a day. Someone from a forum put their name on it, posted it saying they were up all night writing it and put a donation link at the bottom of their post.
When confronted, they lied and said it didn't work so they rewrote it, but a simple comparison showed the only changes made was to echo commands which displayed the author's name and some text about how to run it. They also had no clue how it worked and gave bad advice about how to use it, and there were a lot of people on that forum using it, having problems and asking questions.
I didn't really care, and I never got a penny for my work, but it forced me to think about it, and what I came up with was: what use is there in having that kind of thing around? They aren't contributing or advancing ideas, they're confusing them and possibly screwing things up.
The douche that stole my script went from "moderator" to "supermoderator" at that site. If that was your site, why would you even want to keep him around? I'm not a banhammer kinda guy, but there's no upside to allowing things like that to continue.

Im no developer, but i do see both sides of the story. But I mean this is no way to act.
[email protected] please tell your teamdouche to grow up. We all know it was someone in it that just made that name
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kingklick92
whoever made that account with MY name haha ur f****g retarded, Ill see you in court. You distribuuted MY name
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kingklick92
whether you were in the right or not.
I think credit should just be given when you use someones work just like you would want the same for your work.
Delete if not acceptable.

Oh for ****'s sake.
OP, you're being a white-knighting ninny. KK got what he deserved: "open-source" doesn't mean an eradication of common courtesy--and crediting is common courtesy. You're trying to weasel around "blah blah why don't we credit HTC and Google" which is sheer, utter, retarded straw man. We know who developed Android by implication unless you live under a rock. Not so with specific individual community contributions.
Besides, what did KK even do? All I saw in the N1 development section from him was ROMs based off other people's work slightly modified, or rubbish that never worked like his attempt to port Blur. I say good riddance. The fact that he managed to scam donations off people hardly helps his case. I'd sooner donate to the source/original contributors, not such a juvenile, plagiarizing, useless waste of oxygen.

Unfamiliar term!

Heard the word kanging in another thread! What does that word mean when someone is kanging?
Sent from my Full Android using XDA App

a discussion about somebody that doesnt include them or taking work from somebody and claiming it as yours

its stolen code, a programmer writes something, someone else steals the code and then tries to pass it off as theirs, they kang'd it.
Taken from another website
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

It means taking another person's code, claiming it to be your own, and/or not giving credit to the original developer.
Examples: The Ultimate Droid (Part 2), KingKlick

Aaah yes figured something like that!
Sent from my Full Android using XDA App

Used in a sentence
Wow lots of righteous indignation. Here's it being used in a sentence.
Google didn't Kang Vlingo's concepts cause of the open license agreement that it was posted under.
iphone devs can have their code Kanged cause they keep their intellectual rights to it. Android devs don't have to worry about that.

willy900wonka said:
Wow lots of righteous indignation. Here's it being used in a sentence.
Google didn't Kang Vlingo's concepts cause of the open license agreement that it was posted under.
iphone devs can have their code Kanged cause they keep their intellectual rights to it. Android devs don't have to worry about that.
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Not really... Just because something is FOSS doesn't mean it can't be kanged (see: Kingklick, TUD, etc.). If credit is removed or lied about, then it is considered kanged.

aka KAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGed
If you find yourself in the position to accuse someone of kanging code, I would use the above reference to do so.

XDA/Samsung the merge

Hello Guys,
My name is John, I recently became the social media analyst at Samsung mobile. I wanted to start opening the lines of communication between XDA and Samsung. First I wanted to say I have noticed your work on our devices on the XDA forums. I think you guys do an outstanding job, I myself am a developer for mobile devices. So let’s get down to business, we’re going to be in Austin from March 10-15 for the SXSW(south by southwest http://sxsw.com/convention). I was wondering if any of you guys are going so that we could meet up and share a couple of ideas I have. I am looking forward to meeting some of you GREAT developers!
Thanks in advance,
John
Social Media Analyst
Samsung Mobile USA
Twitter: @SamsungJohn

Hi!
Quoting myself from the Vibrant thread :
Sine. said:
SamsungJohn said:
Yes, I have been watching you guys work and I must say is very fantastic. I am here on behalf of Samsung to establish a partnership. Do you guys suggest me posting this in the development forums?
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Does Samsung has planned to implement the wonderful Supercurio's work (like Voodoo great sound improvements) and to work with him?
Edit : I've read your're also a developper, so yes, you should post in dev sections
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SamsungJohn said:
Hello Guys,
My name is John, I recently became the social media analyst at Samsung mobile. I wanted to start opening the lines of communication between XDA and Samsung. First I wanted to say I have noticed your work on our devices on the XDA forums. I think you guys do an outstanding job, I myself am a developer for mobile devices. So let’s get down to business, we’re going to be in Austin from March 10-15 for the SXSW(south by southwest http://sxsw.com/convention). I was wondering if any of you guys are going so that we could meet up and share a couple of ideas I have. I am looking forward to meeting some of you GREAT developers!
Thanks in advance,
John
Social Media Analyst
Samsung Mobile USA
Twitter: @SamsungJohn
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First things first.. It would be nice if you guys made a roadmap for stuff under development for our phone. At the moment, we have no idea which bugs are getting fixed or when. And we have no idea what's being worked on. We don't need a accurate timeframe, simply an indication of what's being worked on
Even better, track the serial numbers/IMEI of the phones, and allow each owner to vote on where development should be targeted (such as what Dune HD does). You could even make an application on the Samsung store to let us vote directly on the phones (which might make it even better).
I wont be there in Austin (too far), but I think what I have mentioned is important, because Samsung tech support is unresponsive and horrible (when you send them a bug by email, you NEVER get a response). However, by at least implementing a voting feature, poor tech support suddenly becomes less relevant.

I have a simple suggestion. Samsung are really ontop when it comes to hardware but we haven't seen any advancement in battery technology. Perhaps, as well as focusing on samoled screens power saving prowess, we could address where we are on the battery side of things. So many features require a modern battery.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Check your Private messages John, sent you something

jj03 said:
I have a simple suggestion. Samsung are really ontop when it comes to hardware but we haven't seen any advancement in battery technology. Perhaps, as well as focusing on samoled screens power saving prowess, we could address where we are on the battery side of things. So many features require a modern battery.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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Let's not turn this thread into a laundry list of things we want from Samsung. That's not the point and it'll just spiral out of control.

I think that this is a big and important step from Samsung, which they should have done earlier, to be present instead of being silent all the time.
It's for sure that there is brilliant developers at XDA that has done some excellent work, imagine how much they could have done if there someone they could get answers from when the questions do present them self.

Is this a joke or somthing ?

Samsung usa. lol.
**DamianGTO Steam kernel. 350MB Ram. 500HZ. all ext2. Steam Rom. Js5**

SamsungJohn said:
Hello Guys,
My name is John, I recently became the social media analyst at Samsung mobile. I wanted to start opening the lines of communication between XDA and Samsung. First I wanted to say I have noticed your work on our devices on the XDA forums. I think you guys do an outstanding job, I myself am a developer for mobile devices. So let’s get down to business, we’re going to be in Austin from March 10-15 for the SXSW(south by southwest http://sxsw.com/convention). I was wondering if any of you guys are going so that we could meet up and share a couple of ideas I have. I am looking forward to meeting some of you GREAT developers!
Thanks in advance,
John
Social Media Analyst
Samsung Mobile USA
Twitter: @SamsungJohn
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Hey John, first of all welcome here !
I this this is very interesting you come! Look, you're page 12 of the the Open Source strategy I shared with Samsung Korea
http://bit.ly/hNJ38m
Hehe I don't know if this is coincidence or consequence, but it sure demonstrate a lot of common interest, and is an excellent news for Samsung and XDA developers !
John and you guys what think of my document now made public?
PS: does your initiative comes from Korea or you didn't shared yet? I must tell you about a few people there

It's great to see Samsung getting involved here. I hope this is not just for PR purposes, Samsung and the customers would get huge benefits if you work together with the developers here.
For a start, I recommend you take a good look into the work that members Supercurio and Hardcore on this forum have done, and work on implementing them into your own firmware.
The difference the 3rd party firmware on the Galaxy S makes is huge. It's faster, the screen looks sharper and better, and the new sound drivers they have worked on are brilliant. The two members I mentioned seem to be the main ones contributing to this.

How about not fragmenting Android and talking to the devs about the best way to allow them access to all the firmware and drivers that are currently not open sourced? (NDA for select devs maybe?)
This would give you all the love you require form the Members here
Logicalstep

Hmm am i the only one who is a bit distrustful? I see no proof whatsoever , that john is im fact a samsung employee .. Or is it just me being paranoid after so many internet hoaxes.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

He's a fake.
Why would he only write on few tread that he make and why would Samsung even write anything here.
Sure now will that give us all code and help us to root the phone.. Lol...
**DamianGTO Steam kernel. 350MB Ram. 500HZ. all ext2. Steam Rom. Js5**

I don't think he's a fake, look in this thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=950852
russ2048 said:
http://twitter.com/#!/SamsungCarla
she tweets samsungjohn the newest member so I think he is real.
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jocala said:
Samsung has a team on Twitter. John is linked there and appears to be the real deal, unless there's a 10 person troll-team operating to pwn Samsung
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Its do easy to pretend to be Samsung person. There is zero prof that he is that.
**DamianGTO Steam kernel. 350MB Ram. 500HZ. all ext2. Steam Rom. Js5**

Have you at least read the thread I've quoted? There are other "proofs", like Captainkrtek (senior moderator) who's checked he's legit...
Anyway, it's your right to not believe it.

Hello john please new firmware for dbt (germany), wit 2.2.1
Thanks for posting here
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

sammy_user said:
Hello john please new firmware for dbt (germany), wit 2.2.1
Thanks for posting here
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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use odin....
btw: i don't think it is real but would be great if it is real....
talk to supercurio,hardcore,cmsgsteam and you could push your phones over the top....
softwarewise out of the box the sgs is a disapointment...

Thank you!
I'm sure we all have seen Transformers right? Remember that scene in the movie where the Autobots are arriving to earth?(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kps_CkEEkUo) Quality kind of sucks. I compare that scene as Samsung arriving to XDA! I will not let you guys down. I will be back on Monday, in the mean time all top developers please pm. On Monday, I will post a new thread explaining further details. Also if your going to be in Austin for the convention let me know as well.
P.S. I have been reading all your postings in the threads.
Thanks
@SamsungJohn

Scam warning, please read

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1083280
Please read and help fight! This guy is a thief and deserves to be shut down. Please help out the smartphone community!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

Maybe I am an a$$, but I am not seeing an issue here. I have read these articles for the last half hour. He wants a donation for access to his site, that is his bad. If people want to pay, that is their stupidity. I don't see an illegality here. Charging for access to your site is a huge difference than changing for software. I don't agree what he is doing, but I think this huge fight against him is ridiculous.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

Legato525 said:
Maybe I am an a$$, but I am not seeing an issue here. I have read these articles for the last half hour. He wants a donation for access to his site, that is his bad. If people want to pay, that is their stupidity. I don't see an illegality here. Charging for access to your site is a huge difference than changing for software. I don't agree what he is doing, but I think this huge fight against him is ridiculous.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
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He is charging for software. He has a **** ton of paid gameloft games, as well as other paid apps behind his donation wall. And he has my rom that I developed, and many other roms/mods/themes behind that wall. He also claims those are his roms. This guy is scum.
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If he's got paid* apps he's charging for (that he can't legally redistribute in such a manner), and he's redistributing an unmodified version of your rom, or you relicensed your rom, that's copyright infringement. You could issue a DMCA take-down notice to his ISP/hosting provider and have high odds of getting his site shut down. You could also notify the proper copyright owners of those games, and it's pretty likely they'd try and get it shut down as well.
Although, considering the permissive licensing most of Android is under, you likely wouldn't have a case against him really (the kernel he can definitely sell, and likely everything else short of artwork if you didn't relicense it... his claim that it's "his" likely would fly just as well that the ROM is "yours" if he changed even a single bit).
* Paid or not actually doesn't matter, really anything that doesn't explicitly grant the right to redistribute commercially.

KitsuneKnight said:
If he's got paid* apps he's charging for (that he can't legally redistribute in such a manner), and he's redistributing an unmodified version of your rom, or you relicensed your rom, that's copyright infringement. You could issue a DMCA take-down notice to his ISP/hosting provider and have high odds of getting his site shut down. You could also notify the proper copyright owners of those games, and it's pretty likely they'd try and get it shut down as well.
Although, considering the permissive licensing most of Android is under, you likely wouldn't have a case against him really (the kernel he can definitely sell, and likely everything else short of artwork if you didn't relicense it... his claim that it's "his" likely would fly just as well that the ROM is "yours" if he changed even a single bit).
* Paid or not actually doesn't matter, really anything that doesn't explicitly grant the right to redistribute commercially.
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I agree, but unless I missed something I don't see any where that he is claiming that the roms he is hosting are all his nor have I seen a paid app advertised. I dont disagree he is a loser but unless he is specifically charging for the roms themselves (or claiming they are his) then what he is doing is unethical not illegal. As for commercial distribution, no where on his site does he say anything about himself being a business, hence the commercial aspect does not fly. I am not supporting the guy, but throwing around words like scam artist and criminal are inappropriate. (if you tell me where to find where he himself is promoting distribution of pay for apps or that he is claiming any open source project is his when we know it is not, I will take it all back. Til then I have to take the stance against falss allegations.)
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Dan_Brutal said:
He is charging for software. He has a **** ton of paid gameloft games, as well as other paid apps behind his donation wall. And he has my rom that I developed, and many other roms/mods/themes behind that wall. He also claims those are his roms. This guy is scum.
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That's what I am looking for. You have screen Shots of this? This is my disagreement, non of the articles post proof. If you have some please post it.
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Follow the link in the op. Im just the messenger.
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Went through everything again, I see no evidence and no proof, just a lot of angry people. Remember 2 things people. Slander and libel are illegal. And two nothing android is worth ruining someones life over. Everyone in this situation needs to get a damn life aka and all the losers taking this easy too far. With that I am out of this situation.
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Round of applause! PIPA and SOPA were dropped

the following is an email i received 2 hours ago... read on
The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game. You were heard.
On January 18th, 13 million of us took the time to tell Congress to protect free speech rights on the internet. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion, people all around the world saw what we did on Wednesday. See the amazing numbers here and tell everyone what you did.
This was unprecedented. Your activism may have changed the way people fight for the public interest and basic rights forever.
The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”
“'This is altogether a new effect,' Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing 'an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically' in the last four decades, he added."
Tweet with us, shout on the internet with us, let's celebrate: Round of applause to the 13 million people who stood up - #PIPA and #SOPA aretabled 4 now. #13millionapplause
We're indebted to the people who helped in the beginning -- you, and the sites that trusted us -- Boing Boing and Mozilla Foundation! And the grassroots groups -- Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress and Fight for the Future. Press release is here: http://bit.ly/w4DYz0 and https://fightfortheftr.wordpress.com/press-releases/
13 million strong,
Tiffiniy, Holmes, Joshua, Phil, CJ, Donny, Douglas, Nicholas, Dean, David S. and Moore, Fight for the Future!
P.S. China's internet censorship system reminds us why the fight for democratic principles is so important:
In the New Yorker: "Fittingly, perhaps, the discussion has unfolded on Weibo, the Twitter-like micro-blogging site that has a team of censors on staff to trim posts with sensitive political content. That is the arrangement that opponents of the bill have suggested would be required of American sites if they are compelled to police their users’ content for copyright violations. On Weibo, joking about SOPA’s similarities to Chinese censorship was sensitive enough that some posts on the subject were almost certainly deleted (though it can be hard to know).
...
After Chinese Web users got over the strangeness of hearing Americans debate the merits of screening the Web for objectionable content, they marvelled at the American response. Commentator Liu Qingyan wrote:
‘We should learn something from the way these American Internet companies protested against SOPA and PIPA. A free and democratic society depends on every one of us caring about politics and fighting for our rights. We will not achieve it by avoiding talk about politics.’"

WOOHOO! time to grab my cold 6 packs of beer!

These were almost passed....but then the government took an arrow to the knee

Yes! I would have been extremely pissed if these had passed! Almost started looking at homes in Canada!

Mostdef said:
WOOHOO! time to grab my cold 6 packs of beer!
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Pass me a beer
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voohoo said:
These were almost passed....but then the government took an arrow to the knee
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Exactly man, we got lucky but then again 13 million is a lot people.
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now to take those 13 million to samsung to get an update! cheers!

I told you it will NEVER happen crap like this.

Se7eN43 said:
now to take those 13 million to samsung to get an update! cheers!
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I will love to see that!

xriderx66 said:
I told you it will NEVER happen crap like this.
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Never is a kind of stretch. It could and it will, just not yet. Freedom is earned not given, and when people become lazy, it is lost.
Great news though, hopefully this will make the MPAA and others hold off on censorship and blocking of innovative technology for a while.

"delayed" all of us have to stay vigilant about every thing like this.
SGSII

The bill didnt get dropped. Its been put on the shelf. It will rear its ugly head in a year or so.
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a new problem! after SOPA/PIPA, its turn for ACTA just like SOPA PIPA

kazumahits said:
a new problem! after SOPA/PIPA, its turn for ACTA just like SOPA PIPA
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Yeah I know, that's been worst. They're going to have control over your isp if that passes...
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We have to be on the lookout for similar bills, its retarded how they lobbied to try to sneak it into law hoping people wouldn't notice. Glad this one is shelved indefinitely