Related
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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Click to collapse
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.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
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.)
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
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.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
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Click to collapse
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.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Follow the link in the op. Im just the messenger.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
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.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
First i want to start by saying im sorry that you all are not understanding what the 5 bucks is for . its hard to find things on the net and in the forums. When i first started i came here to xda i soft bircked my phone from a rom so i asked for help here and got yelled at, called names and told im posting in the wrong room . I didnt know, but still someone could of helped me instead i was made fun of and laughed at for my spelling here at xda . so i went out and found out alot about phones made a couple videos and poof everyone found me ....i was helping so many people, my phone was none stop ringing but i picked up . i helped them out by telling people where to go, how to get what they want was hard so i made a site it was free all day up intill 5 months ago . see the site was coasting me 250 a month that i did not have but people still needed help they tryed to come here but people where mean cuzz where noobs . so thats why at akaskriller.com it coast 5 bucks . everyone knows these roms are free on the net there not paying for the roms there paying for a just cause for helping people in need no matter what . for the roms i put out i say i hacked theme or themed them out . its fun to theme them out and help people ..
so im sorry if u all got it wrong and i give back to the devs that i take the most calls on lol but for real you all stop being silly and saying bad things about me.
and we pay peoples bills that can not ... ask your selfs y do you all care so much what others do for help?
seriously? why hide the roms behind donations then? why not post it freely and market it as a pay support site? why post paid apps for free behind the donation? why not post it all for no donation at all and post a link for 5.00 a month tech support? i'm certain this thread will be locked in no time and look forward to the humiliation headed your way.
I do not accept your apology. You are a fraud. You stole peoples work to make money
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
it doesn't matter your logic for any of that.
1) you cannot advertise anything that has a registration/paywall on xda, it's against the forum rules (it's the same reason we don't see posts by samfirmware stuff anymore, even though we all know about it)
2) you cannot include links to services/devices you sell (it's fine to tell people of a download mode JIG and even to check ebay or other places, but to point directly to yours is also against the rules)
3) if you don't have the money to run the site, don't run it (why host anything at all beyond a few lightweight html files with explanations)
4) make the donation optional. register for the site for free and then people can donate if they want (hey, sounds an awful lot like what xda is)
5) do you have the permission of the ROM developers to repost their work elsewhere? (especially behind a lazy paywall)
if you can't follow xda's rules, then what do you expect to happen?
What you do is wrong!
1. You host warez on your site.
2. You steal all of out Dev's roms
3. Just link you "subscribers" to xda
Why not use something like forumotion.com to so you don't have to pay?
And the no credits?
This... this is going to get nasty unfortunately.
Be respectable people.
Suck my balls.
@aka , not s15 >.>
see this is xda all you all do is talk bad im sorry but there are no paid apps in site and app brain or 4share.com lol theres all your apps for free ... i tell you all and you dont here me
And the lying about creating a Gingerbread ROM with GPS?
I think the point that most are upset with is that you have done this in a sneaky manner and not asked any dev if it was okay to post their work. For us to put sometimes months into building a better rom and then you to take it change a couple icons or colors and then post it as your own work when you probably wouldn't know a XML from a bml and charge people for "support" which they get here for free. I personally have tried to answer every "noob" that has approached me and not once charged.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
You pay for 250 (A dedicated box) for your forum?
Damn. That's silly.
You are in breach of Apache Software License Version 2 & GNU General Public License Version 2.
You are in breach of your AdSense account by hosting copyrighted material, you have been reported - LINK
You have been reported to Gameloft for hosting their pirated/warez apps, they have notified their legal dept.
You have been reported to your web host - LINK - for hosting & distributing pirated/warez apps.
You have been reported to Paypal for profiteering off pirated/warez apps.
Enjoy the next few days.
tissle said:
You pay for 250 (A dedicated box) for your forum?
Damn. That's silly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
Quit trying to front dude. And if you're paying 250 a month for your site that's a joke. Learn the rules before you break them. All youre trying to do now is bend them. Quit taking other devastating work!!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
And it appears that most scammers would try to post an apology explaining their situation in order "recreate" their image again.
250? more like 10
Get Godaddy and pay that much.
We don't care you have a crappy website that costs that much.
The not helping? You think its just here? Look at your own forums buddy...
Someone here posted a link to one of your threads where someone asked if OC can be used on all of "your" roms, 1 reply "try it and find out"
Very nice answer?
Everyone here will hate you and probably do, you know why?
YOU STOLE WORK.
and now your trying to make excuses like a 5 year old kid lying about stealing his friends toy car.
Grow some balls kid.
andyharney said:
You are in breach of Apache Software License Version 2 & GNU General Public License Version 2.
You are in breach of your AdSense account by hosting copyrighted material, you have been reported - LINK
You have been reported to Gameloft for hosting their pirated/warez apps, they have notified their legal dept.
You have been reported to your web host - LINK - for hosting & distributing pirated/warez apps.
You have been reported to Paypal for profiteering off pirated/warez apps.
Enjoy the next few days.
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Click to collapse
Your ****ed.
Ill give you 5 dollars to shut the hell up.....oh and gps on 2.3
s15274n said:
This... this is going to get nasty unfortunately.
Be respectable people.
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Click to collapse
i thought exactly the same thing when i saw this lol. made damn sure i jumped in with justifiable questions and hope for an answer before it got locked. guess i'll pop some popcorn and watch the show.
ps. still hoping for some answers to my questions akaskriller.
tissle said:
You pay for 250 (A dedicated box) for your forum?
Damn. That's silly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He doesn't have a dedicated server, his server IP is 216.17.96.218 and as you can see it goes nowhere. Its a shared IP.
This has become a stickler point for me.
How exactly do these "roms" that post on xda to gain the large audience with links to thier own sites with thier own forums and downloads do it?
Why does XDA allow the threads to exist?
To me it's a confusing point, on one hand you've got the huge user base that XDA has and it's "helpful" but on the other hand these "roms" have chosen to move else where to have a clear cut definition of "who" their users are.
I for one would love to see xda delete these threads, if your rom isnt hosted here why should XDA pick up the tab on the traffic and moderation to "support" the people that don't want to follow basic rules.
It's one thing to post on here saying that it's out it's quite another to have a thread devoted to the rom for "support" when they've got their own site and thier own "donation" setup and don't offer direct links to the roms.
I'm thinking of Bonsai and Baked Snack when I say this, although other sites like ppcgeeks are guilty of it as well.
Here's the breakdown...
Baked snack was a rom a while back that Herver ran, he had people that loved his roms, but he wouldnt share his gpl code, so XDA to avoid issues banned him and removes his threads.
Bonsai started up thier own "business oriented and non-hobby"(randy's words) website and started offering up betas to people that donated, BANNING people that would share this beta software if they found out.(or so his users have said)
PPCGeeks.com basically is a forum that has very little of it's own content and tends to backlink to threads here on XDA. This should not be allowed. it's cheap and annoying to think that other forums all link back to xda but refuse to use and follow it's rules touting it as the devil for thier moderators sucking and other offhanded badness, while at the same time using it's resources for thier own gain.
If you want to follow the XDA rules on rom posting fine. Post here. If you want to have your own site to support the rom fine have the site, but if you get removed from the site for not following the rules, do NOT expect to keep using it to support your users.
The rules of posting should be simple.
If you post a rom in a thread there should NOT be an external sign up on said site to get the rom.
If you post a rom, there should NOT be a pay to play system in place to get "advanced" copies,(nor a "shopping cart" for the rom)
If you post a rom, there SHOULD be a direct link or mirror link to the rom.
If you post a rom, there should be open disclosure and read-only sources to what you've done.
In essence i for one WANT to see all support threads for non-hosted on XDA roms removed, they put a burden on XDA to moderate, the put a burden on XDA for bandwidth and hardware, and they cause undue traffic to those that don't want to play by the rules they signed up for.
Side note, i'd love to see hotlinking from other sites also disabled on XDA to stop those crap spring up offshoot websites thinking they're better and "more laid back" from not having to bother with their own content and users.
Analogy time:
Think of it like this... You've spent a lot of time and money to make a large car lot, you allow others of the community who've used your car lot to gather and sell their own cars on your lot free of charge. It all runs fine until along comes one person that feels they should be allowed to use the facilities of the lot for only themselves and break ruin the good bathroom, now they setup thier own bathroom close to thier table but only people that come to thier table and purchase a car may use this bathroom. After a little while you find that they have opened up their own car lot across the street. You ask them to take their cars elsewhere, and remove them from your lot. BUT they setup a table on your lot and take up valuable real-estate to "answer questions" about their car lot across the street AND about their cars. while using your facilities and security etc. Would you do that in normal circumstances? or would you remove their table as well and let them use their own car lot as a support and sales team for their own cars?
Anyways, thats my take on the whole off-site roms but XDA support.
Add thanks to this if you support this idea, OR post away and add something new to the conversation, *I* personally think that XDA should take a hand in removing these threads from here as they are a detriment to the community that exists and undermines the ideals attached to opensource projects.
I definitely agree with Art3mis on this one. Its ridiculous that they are still allowed to have support threads (and more that they even have support threads instead of just having them all on their own private forums as they either, didnt follow the rules of XDA, or left at their own accord).
Yeah it annoys me that bonsai still has support threads here.
you are right and i agree 100% with everything except this:
art3mis-nyc said:
Side note, i'd love to see hotlinking from other sites also disabled on XDA to stop those crap spring up offshoot websites thinking they're better and "more laid back" from not having to bother with their own content and users.
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Click to collapse
hotlinking from other sites is how all the roms are posted whether it be private domains or sites like multiupload. there is an 8meg limit on xda attachments...so big 100+ meg rom downloads have to be linked from somewhere else to save xda's bandwidth. i personally like hosting my own files and giving direct links in threads because i can look at awstats and know how many times a file has been hit.
on that same note i agree there should be a direct link...and i mean a real direct link....not a redirect to sign up or a redirect to an ad page or anything like that...the rest of your article i agree 100%
Then don't click on the thread?? Is it really that hard?
art3mis-nyc said:
This has become a stickler point for me......(other stuff)
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Click to collapse
Get off your high horse. You are no dev (not even cut and paste) and no mod.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
XDA doesn't allow software that breaks the rules or off-site competition, but they allow discussion of said software. Kind of counter-intuitive, really.
Rodderik said:
hotlinking from other sites is how all the roms are posted whether it be private domains or sites like multiupload. there is an 8meg limit on xda attachments...so big 100+ meg rom downloads have to be linked from somewhere else to save xda's bandwidth.
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Click to collapse
I think he means other websites hotlinking to XDA.
All the Bonsai support threads are gone, and have been for a long while. The only thing left is the user discussion thread in the General section. It's for news and users helping other users. Everyone knows where to go for dev support when it comes to Bonsai.
But there are a couple reasons why the thread exists. First off, it doesn't break any XDA rules. They would have to break their own rules or create new ones to get rid of it. The other reason is XDA does not want to remove it. Anything that is considered controversial gets hits. The more hits, the better for advertising revenue . Every time someone tries to start a Bonsai hate thread of *****es about why it exists, people come along and either argue or agree with the OP. XDA does not care one way or the other, they get paid the same.
As Randy stated here-
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15035075&postcount=1026
He has made every attempt to work things out, but it has been a one way process.
Deleted. Counter productive.
Sent from me!
tl;dr
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I think this whole thing is kind of silly. The analygy given by the OP isn't even close. In xda, no physical damage was done and nothing illegal was done. You might as well been comparing a frog to a cow .
I am a huge proponent of open source, but as a business owner, I know that time is very important and good developers should be paid.
In other open source industries (I will use Drupal.org as my example), commercial and opensource get along just fine. There are many commercial companies (acquia.com) that's entire business is providing service and support for the open source products they use and promote. The commercial companies have made the open source community way stronger in these last few years. Another example would be Linux, Canonical the business backing Ubuntu.
Those industries have standards too and don't allow any non-GPL (back to the Drupal example) code to be committed in there repository. They still allow commercial companies with closed source to participate.
The "groups" (bonsai, etc...) that are talked about here are still contributing to the the community. They may not be doing it according to xda's rules, but that doesn't mean they aren't contributing.
I understand xda's motives for disallowing closed source stuff in the forums. But banning everyones ability to talk about sites outside of the forum is ridiculous. Thats like saying "we encourage and love open source" but "we hate open (source) communication".
Lastly, why you throwing PPCGeeks under the bus. Before my epic I owned 3 winmo phones. I could find way more CDMA winmo roms on PPCgeeks than I ever found on xda. Fixes were rolled out fast and the winmo community on ppcgeeks was very strong.
Rodderik said:
you are right and i agree 100% with everything except this:
hotlinking from other sites is how all the roms are posted whether it be private domains or sites like multiupload. there is an 8meg limit on xda attachments...so big 100+ meg rom downloads have to be linked from somewhere else to save xda's bandwidth. i personally like hosting my own files and giving direct links in threads because i can look at awstats and know how many times a file has been hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is more in relation to say i started a "forum" for Superawesomeroms.com and then i have nothing to post so all i do is post links to XDA threads all the while bemoaning and berating XDA for thier crap moderation and blah blah blah blah
Well, I for one post my content here, ppcgeeks, and ACS. Obviously most of the traffic I get is here.
What I can say is that other sites linking to xda is how I found this site. I was on ppcgeeks a few months before xda, and found xda through a link off their site. I also link back to xda quite often when I'm trying to help other on another site. What that shows me is that other sites linking back to xda drives traffic here.
Traffic=revenue. Guess I don't see the problem with that.
art3mis-nyc said:
This has become a stickler point for me.
How exactly do these "roms" that post on xda to gain the large audience with links to thier own sites with thier own forums and downloads do it?
Why does XDA allow the threads to exist?
To me it's a confusing point, on one hand you've got the huge user base that XDA has and it's "helpful" but on the other hand these "roms" have chosen to move else where to have a clear cut definition of "who" their users are.
I for one would love to see xda delete these threads, if your rom isnt hosted here why should XDA pick up the tab on the traffic and moderation to "support" the people that don't want to follow basic rules.
It's one thing to post on here saying that it's out it's quite another to have a thread devoted to the rom for "support" when they've got their own site and thier own "donation" setup and don't offer direct links to the roms.
I'm thinking of Bonsai and Baked Snack when I say this, although other sites like ppcgeeks are guilty of it as well.
Here's the breakdown...
Baked snack was a rom a while back that Herver ran, he had people that loved his roms, but he wouldnt share his gpl code, so XDA to avoid issues banned him and removes his threads.
Bonsai started up thier own "business oriented and non-hobby"(randy's words) website and started offering up betas to people that donated, BANNING people that would share this beta software if they found out.(or so his users have said)
PPCGeeks.com basically is a forum that has very little of it's own content and tends to backlink to threads here on XDA. This should not be allowed. it's cheap and annoying to think that other forums all link back to xda but refuse to use and follow it's rules touting it as the devil for thier moderators sucking and other offhanded badness, while at the same time using it's resources for thier own gain.
If you want to follow the XDA rules on rom posting fine. Post here. If you want to have your own site to support the rom fine have the site, but if you get removed from the site for not following the rules, do NOT expect to keep using it to support your users.
The rules of posting should be simple.
If you post a rom in a thread there should NOT be an external sign up on said site to get the rom.
If you post a rom, there should NOT be a pay to play system in place to get "advanced" copies,(nor a "shopping cart" for the rom)
If you post a rom, there SHOULD be a direct link or mirror link to the rom.
If you post a rom, there should be open disclosure and read-only sources to what you've done.
In essence i for one WANT to see all support threads for non-hosted on XDA roms removed, they put a burden on XDA to moderate, the put a burden on XDA for bandwidth and hardware, and they cause undue traffic to those that don't want to play by the rules they signed up for.
Side note, i'd love to see hotlinking from other sites also disabled on XDA to stop those crap spring up offshoot websites thinking they're better and "more laid back" from not having to bother with their own content and users.
Analogy time:
Think of it like this... You've spent a lot of time and money to make a large car lot, you allow others of the community who've used your car lot to gather and sell their own cars on your lot free of charge. It all runs fine until along comes one person that feels they should be allowed to use the facilities of the lot for only themselves and break ruin the good bathroom, now they setup thier own bathroom close to thier table but only people that come to thier table and purchase a car may use this bathroom. After a little while you find that they have opened up their own car lot across the street. You ask them to take their cars elsewhere, and remove them from your lot. BUT they setup a table on your lot and take up valuable real-estate to "answer questions" about their car lot across the street AND about their cars. while using your facilities and security etc. Would you do that in normal circumstances? or would you remove their table as well and let them use their own car lot as a support and sales team for their own cars?
Anyways, thats my take on the whole off-site roms but XDA support.
Add thanks to this if you support this idea, OR post away and add something new to the conversation, *I* personally think that XDA should take a hand in removing these threads from here as they are a detriment to the community that exists and undermines the ideals attached to opensource projects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as your calling everyone else out. Mentioning a competitive site, I do believe, is against the rules.
Guys, these are just phones and at this point why even bring this up? I'm not suggesting that the rules be ignored but everyone constantly getting bent out of shape over this stuff isn't productive or even healthy for that matter.
PLEASE, just let the Bonsai thing just die already. They made their choice and no matter how many people complain about it, is't going to change anything. All it does is start flame wars. If you have something to say to them I suggest you contact them directly and give them a chance to address the concerns directly.
Why can't we do something.......anything...but complain. Does anyone stop to think that Bonsai leaving for setting up their site the way they did has little to nothing to do with the direction the Epic forums are going in? It's bad attitudes and feelings of entitlement that are KILLING this forum, IMHO. Stop complaining and contribute to positive change. If we focus on the negative all the time that's all we are going to get.
If any threads should be deleted it is ones talking about other phones. There are forums for those. This is the Samsung Epic forum, that is the phone I have chosen for 2 years and only want to see threads about those. If an accessory or ROM is avaliable off XA for it, I want to know about it. I don't give a crap about the EVO 3d or Within or any otherstupid little phone that comes out. XDA has a general forum for that and most of these have their own forums. Don't clutter our threads with that garbage, or whiny kids saying "it's official our phone is a piece of crap"! This is the clutter that needs to be removed. Not a single thread for an offsite ROM.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
icevapor said:
I think this whole thing is kind of silly. The analygy given by the OP isn't even close. In xda, no physical damage was done and nothing illegal was done. You might as well been comparing a frog to a cow .
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Click to collapse
Not really it's a valid argument, and while you dont see it, BW useage etc is a hit when it supports items that arent on the site itself.
icevapor said:
I am a huge proponent of open source, but as a business owner, I know that time is very important and good developers should be paid.
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Click to collapse
Some very fine work perhaps the best work as far as the epic goes, is from people that do it for fun and hobby, and dont ask for donations and in some cases dont even have a link for it, yet others believe as you do apperantly that they should be able to take the others work, rename it and change it and "sell" it(ie the Bonsai clockworkmod that they simply renamed and recoloured) as noted i'm fine with charging for support, it's the software i dont like the charging to exist for.
icevapor said:
In other open source industries (I will use Drupal.org as my example), commercial and opensource get along just fine. There are many commercial companies (acquia.com) that's entire business is providing service and support for the open source products they use and promote. The commercial companies have made the open source community way stronger in these last few years. Another example would be Linux, Canonical the business backing Ubuntu.
Those industries have standards too and don't allow any non-GPL (back to the Drupal example) code to be committed in there repository. They still allow commercial companies with closed source to participate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The difference between that and this is that the Opensource lives along side, doesnt require a signup and in most cases is "on par" with the pay version, again you're paying for support, which im fine with, but the software is available to all or none, not to who pays.(minus some features of course but rarely advanced beta copies etc)
icevapor said:
The "groups" (bonsai, etc...) that are talked about here are still contributing to the the community. They may not be doing it according to xda's rules, but that doesn't mean they aren't contributing.
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Click to collapse
I can't think of a single thing that has been contributed back, aside from the kernel fiasco for marcusants "psuedo rom"
icevapor said:
Lastly, why you throwing PPCGeeks under the bus. Before my epic I owned 3 winmo phones. I could find way more CDMA winmo roms on PPCgeeks than I ever found on xda. Fixes were rolled out fast and the winmo community on ppcgeeks was very strong.
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Click to collapse
ppcgeeks was the first site that i noticed it on and while it's not directed specifically at them, they are guilty of the above mentioned content links.
i'm not scared of negativity
and you shouldn't be either
if discussing negativity means thats all you will end up with
then ask yourself who is the real source of negativity?
deciding your fate...premonitions?
let it roll
if you never go there...you will never get it out of your system
and i'm sure thats why anyone would participate in this thread to begin with
so do it, and dig deep
just try and be as respectful as possible in your aims
dont cloud this life with misconstrued karma
if you cannot understand someones apparent stance and it appears ignorant or childish,
then try and be the bigger person and post something constructive they can actually do
otherwise you are just bickering for the sake of it
before i get too far off topic
if xda's main goal is truly web traffic...then thats what the userbase is going to comprise of...otherwise you are just out of place and belong elsewhere.
if you are just part of traffic then dont claim to be a leader with every post you make
and vise versa...dont get lost in the traffic when you know damn well you have something to offer the community that is truly valuable. Everyone has a part to play, dont care how many babies are born today.
If in fact this is truly xda's goal...who knows...the site is large...plenty of room for emotion to find its way in.
Life is useful. (dental dams are your friend)
And above all...hitler was nothing compared to billions the russians killed of their own people...
History...it owns people every day.
Stand for something better than the illegitimate use/abuse of people.
Especially when most of these things being created are not very reliable and designed to support jobs and sales and an economy and false hopes and everything that goes along with a society that throws its lives to the foothold of a dollar bill that is utterly useless in the reality of the universe.
Real answers are not easy...take the time as much as you possibly can.
LISTEN
and when you think you cannot take anymore without putting in your two cents
LISTEN SOME MORE
there are plenty of people just hanging around that have been through it all and seen it
and you can stop acting anytime like you are one of them
real life steps in before anyone could ever make a worthwhile decision
humans...making decisions for others since breakfast
tough titties?
we'll see who's talking then...when?
the sooner the sooner
mattallica76 said:
The only thing [Bonsai] left is the user discussion thread in the General section. It's for news and users helping other users.
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I can't say whether this is ideal or not. However, folks are going to ask about Bonsai whether discussion is allowed or not. Thus, it's arguably prudent to allow one thread for its discussion to avoid having it being asked about repeatedly in new threads.
shane6374 said:
What I can say is that other sites linking to xda is how I found this site.
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This is perhaps the most important point of the thread. However it happened, xda became the definitive resource for phone hackery. If xda were to forbid off-site hotlinking, that would have the result, both direct (PageRank, robots exclusion, etc.) and indirect (through absence of news articles and other discussion) of sinking it in search results. At which point--at best--some other site would become definitive and discussion would move there, or quite possibly, no one site would emerge as definitive and discussion would become horribly fragmented.
To be honest, the primary reason I post patches here with lengthy technical descriptions is becuase, in 3-6 months time, I know someone Googling a similar problem will come across my threads and find an answer. The fact that it also contributes code to this community is a wonderful secondary benefit, but to be honest, discussion and ROM development is too ephemeral to make it worth the effort if Google wasn't around to archive the result. And it's far easier for me to do it here, and gets far more exposure and use, than if I were to run my own blog or something.
ptfdmedic said:
As long as your calling everyone else out. Mentioning a competitive site, I do believe, is against the rules.
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yeah yeah, pedantic argument.
ptfdmedic said:
Guys, these are just phones and at this point why even bring this up? I'm not suggesting that the rules be ignored but everyone constantly getting bent out of shape over this stuff isn't productive or even healthy for that matter.
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oh im not bent out of shape, that post would have been a lot more incoherent if i was.
ptfdmedic said:
PLEASE, just let the Bonsai thing just die already. They made their choice and no matter how many people complain about it, is't going to change anything. All it does is start flame wars. If you have something to say to them I suggest you contact them directly and give them a chance to address the concerns directly.
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it's called an example. Happens to be the most obvious so it's used.
btw i did contact them directly and thats how i came to the quote from randy stating that Bonsai is not a hobby it's a business.
and then the tired out saying of "i for one like to pay for good software rant" while touting the virtues of opensource.(<3 me some hypocrites)
ptfdmedic said:
Why can't we do something.......anything...but complain. Does anyone stop to think that Bonsai leaving for setting up their site the way they did has little to nothing to do with the direction the Epic forums are going in? It's bad attitudes and feelings of entitlement that are KILLING this forum, IMHO. Stop complaining and contribute to positive change. If we focus on the negative all the time that's all we are going to get.
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this isn't negative unless you read it that way, i honestly want it to change, and to find out WHY it exists.
People commenting and saying we should "all get along" sadly contribute nothing(good nor bad) to a thread.
mkasick said:
I can't say whether this is ideal or not. However, folks are going to ask about Bonsai whether discussion is allowed or not. Thus, it's arguably prudent to allow one thread for its discussion to avoid having it being asked about repeatedly in new threads.
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You would think so, but the same can't be said towards heros' rom, many threads are started to talk about it are quickly killed and its poster banned.. so it's sort of a double edged.
Who thinks its wrong for websites to charge for free services of other people knowledge and hard work? I know this website that is charging people for the developers roms on here rooting etc. In my opinion its wrong especially when its free knowledge on here. I gurantee the members of the website are not programmers and using your roms and knowledge for their website.
I would find out which ROMs specifically, and pm their respective developers. Or post the name of the website so the devs can join and say that the ROM is theirs and that whoever is posting should stop trying to make money off other people's hard work and dedication
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2
That's pretty outrageous, it's a shame people take advantage of the great part of xda being a free community for devs to provide their work.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I would also notify the administrators of XDA, unsure if we have a legal team, but that website can be taken down, if there is a legal team, they can be taken to court for damages.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
Shinydude100 said:
I would also notify the administrators of XDA, unsure if we have a legal team, but that website can be taken down, if there is a legal team, they can be taken to court for damages.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
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The lawyer fees would be more than XDA would gain. Also, since they do not have the rights to our ROMs, I don't believe that they could (nor would they want to) have the grounds to sue people based on them. It is unfortunate that this happens, but people should know better. They need to know that this is free. I am disappointed that people stoop this low, but if they need the money badly enough that they have to charge for a free service, then there are other avenues that they need to explore. I don't believe it is plagiarism, nor is it within anyone's rights to stop them from doing this. It is not against the law. It is immoral, but not illegal.
xboxfanj said:
The lawyer fees would be more than XDA would gain. Also, since they do not have the rights to our ROMs, I don't believe that they could (nor would they want to) have the grounds to sue people based on them. It is unfortunate that this happens, but people should know better. They need to know that this is free. I am disappointed that people stoop this low, but if they need the money badly enough that they have to charge for a free service, then there are other avenues that they need to explore. I don't believe it is plagiarism, nor is it within anyone's rights to stop them from doing this. It is not against the law. It is immoral, but not illegal.
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Well said! Unethical and illegal are two seperate things... while it is wrong, the only ones that would have the rights to sue are the actual developers of the roms... xda holds no rights to the roms that devs build... so while it is unfortunate and IMO wrong, there is nothing illegal about it...
source link
For those that don't want to access the above link, here is the text:
AT&T is on the receiving end of a $10 million payout each year from the CIA in exchange for providing phone records to help with overseas counterterrorism investigations. It’s a program that the wireless provider voluntarily agrees to meaning there’s no court order involved according to a report from the New York Times.
The publication claims the CIA supplies AT&T with the phone numbers of suspected terrorists. From here, the wireless provider is able to comb their database for call records attached to a given number. These records include valuable information such as the length and date of phone calls. In the event that a call is placed to or from an American number and involved an international caller, the CIA reportedly asks AT&T to mask the identity of the US-based number for legal reasons.
In case you were wondering, the arrangement is said to be different from the tactics the NSA uses to collect phone records although they likely duplicate some of their programs. It appears to have been started sometime before 2010, was put on hold at some point then reinitiated once again.
Naturally, neither AT&T nor the CIA would confirm the existence of the partnership. An anonymous intelligence official, however, believes it makes sense for such a program to be in place. The source said the need to act without delay is often best met when the CIA has developed its own capabilities to lawfully acquire necessary foreign intelligence information.
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lmike6453 said:
source link
For those that don't want to access the above link, here is the text:
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At least they get money for it when we all know CIA has other means of getting those data logs anyways...
Not a surprising tactic. Seriously if a terrorist is still conducting activities on a cellular network... just turn yourself in now.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda app-developers app
OH NO!!!!!! NOW THEY KNOW ABOUT THE TIME I TOLD MY FRIEND I WAS TAKING A DUMP!!!!!!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Anthonok said:
OH NO!!!!!! NOW THEY KNOW ABOUT THE TIME I TOLD MY FRIEND I WAS TAKING A DUMP!!!!!!
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That's not the sort of information they can glean from metadata (unless your friend specializes in counseling people on that topic).
Gary02468 said:
That's not the sort of information they can glean from metadata (unless your friend specializes in counseling people on that topic).
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I know. But my point is I don't care. Also I'm just really tired of hearing people complain about losing their privacy and it being stolen from them...meanwhile they sit there and use Facebook and other social media...haha
Anthonok said:
I know. But my point is I don't care.
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But people who want to protect their own privacy don't care that you don't care. People who take seriously the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, and its requirement to have probable cause and a detailed warrant before conducting a search, also don't care that you don't care. People who have studied history carefully enough to know what abuses arise in the absence of these protections don't care that you don't care.
Also I'm just really tired of hearing people complain about losing their privacy and it being stolen from them...meanwhile they sit there and use Facebook and other social media...
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There's no inconsistency between willingly revealing some information--whether to your friends or to the public--while still wanting NOT to reveal OTHER information publicly.
Gary02468 said:
But people who want to protect their own privacy don't care that you don't care. People who take seriously the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, and its requirement to have probable cause and a detailed warrant before conducting a search, also don't care that you don't care. People who have studied history carefully enough to know what abuses arise in the absence of these protections don't care that you don't care.
There's no inconsistency between willingly revealing some information--whether to your friends or to the public--while still wanting NOT to reveal OTHER information publicly.
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And I don't care that they don't care. People act like this kind of thing is new. Its been around forever. Anyone who thinks its something that's never happened in the past is blind. I understand the whole privacy thing. I get it. But I look at it like this, I'm not doing anything wrong so I don't care who sees what I do or say or who I call. I would rather my every move be monitored as long as it has the possibility of some terrorist being caught preemptively.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Anthonok said:
People act like this kind of thing is new. Its been around forever.
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False. Instead of addressing what people are actually saying, you're pretending that they're saying something they never did.
Warrantless searching isn't new. It's just illegal, immoral, and more dangerous that what it supposedly protects us from.
However, the scale on which spying is being conducted now--the sheer amount of data being collected from hundreds of millions of citizens--is indeed unprecedented. We know that simply because the technology to collect and store that much data did not exist until fairly recently.
I'm not doing anything wrong so I don't care who sees what I do or say or who I call.
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Anyone who says that there's no need for privacy unless you're doing something "wrong" is woefully ignorant not only of history, but of basic human interaction.
Gary02468 said:
False. Instead of addressing what people are actually saying, you're pretending that they're saying something they never did.
Warrantless searching isn't new. It's just illegal, immoral, and more dangerous that what it supposedly protects us from.
However, the scale on which spying is being conducted now--the sheer amount of data being collected from hundreds of millions of citizens--is indeed unprecedented. We know that simply because the technology to collect and store that much data did not exist until fairly recently.
Anyone who says that there's no need for privacy unless you're doing something "wrong" is woefully ignorant not only of history, but of basic human interaction.
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Yeah. Sure. Cool.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Why is this useless, off-topic thread still open!?
khaytsus said:
Why is this useless, off-topic thread still open!?
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(1) It pertains to the AT&T Note 3. (It also pertains to other AT&T phones, but so do many of the AT&T topics discussed here.)
(2) The thread was already dormant until you bumped it just now.
This sort of stuff surely has to have been happening for a while, it's not like they get anything useful out of civilians anyways.
The only terrorists they will catch are the ones that the CIA is training funding and helping conduct and carry out their plan. The CIA has been running alqueda since the start of it. The name it self was a US government database that bin Laden liked and used the name. Every major dictator in history the US has put in power funded and then took them out. It's Hegelian Dialectic=Problem – Reaction – Solution.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda app-developers app
AT&T's going to cough up whatever they're subpoenaed to. Bully for them for extracting a fee for it.
BarryH_GEG said:
AT&T's going to cough up whatever they're subpoenaed to. Bully for them for extracting a fee for it.
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You're just making that up. The people involved have acknowledged that there is no subpoena, and that acknowledgement has been widely reported.
Gary02468 said:
You're just making that up. The people involved have acknowledged that there is no subpoena, and that acknowledgement has been widely reported.
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So? With all that's come to light post-Snowden does this surprise you? The other carriers could be doing something similar and it's just not been made known yet. Post-9/11 the world's a sinister place with both the good guys and bad guys trying to outmaneuver each other with us innocents caught in the middle. If this freaks people out move to another carrier. I guess I operate under the naive assumption that my data being scoured isn't a big deal because I'm not doing anything wrong. My life in data-form would probably be considered pretty boring by those reading it.
Why does everyone think that it's Ok just because they are not doing anything wrong? The founding fathers put the constitution together to protect us from things like this. Lately people are so for giving up their rights all in the name of keeping them "safe" Ben Franklin said " those who will give up liberty for security shall have neither". There are a lot of people who need to wake up to the tyranny that is going on around them before it's to late. The only time people start to care is when it effects them by that time they are a day late and a dollar short. This is a tyrannical regimen we are dealing with and it will only get worse until we stop allowing it to continue just because "I'm not doing anything wrong so why should I care". We either all need to stand up for our rights or we will all fall together.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda app-developers app
boxerlover02 said:
Ben Franklin said " those who will give up liberty for security shall have neither".
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Here's a hint to tell if you're totally off topic for a tech forum - when your posts contain quotes from dead presidents. Fascinating point of view; for Reddit.
I agree I went off topic. But it burns me up that everyone always says "well I have nothing to hide so I don't care". Or there is nothing we can do about it so why should I care... Just think if the men who fought for this country to become a country had that same attitude. There would be no USA. Again sorry for the rant, but we need to hang together or fall separate.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda app-developers app