Slashdot Mirror
Paypal Deals Blow To Freenet
hankaholic writes "I was checking into the latest progress of the Freenet project when I noticed a disturbing note on their homepage: 'Paypal has frozen the account we use to accept donations over the web, they refuse to give any reason other than "use of an anonymous proxy" [...] all of the projects subscriptions have been canceled which is a significant setback. Other means of accepting donations, including E-Gold, are still active.' Paypal is sending them a check for their remaining balance. The news update on the Freenet homepage also includes contact information for some people at Paypal."
This is eBay's house, they get to set the rules.
Since their takeover of the company, PayPal's free-wheeling days abruptly ended. PayPal can no longer be used to fund online gambling of any kind, it can't even be used to fund porn of any kind.
Now, online gambling is of questionable legality in all fifty states and many other places in the world where real gambling is prohibited or heavily restricted. However, most forms of pornography are legal in nearly all parts of the world except where the government is heavily controled by religious influence.
Here in the USA, the government's nowhere close to banning porn.
I think eBay's concern is keeping the PayPal name from being soiled by anything contraversial becase if anybody says "Boycott PayPal... they're helping fund Thing X!", then that indirectly means a boycott of eBay.
to determine with whom they do business. As long as they send Freenet the balance and don't steal, I see nothing (catastrophically) wrong with this.
After all these reports of complaints why are people still letting their money "sit" in paypal. I mean soon as money gets deposited in my account I withdraw it, granted Im not a large operation. But couldnt these groups withdraw fund at least once a day to minimize the damage of paypal "freezing" an account.
Just my opinion...
--
I'm going to support Kerry right until I vote against him on November 2
To a lot of slashdotters that would be a reason to do business with them.
Well this thread will contain hundreds of anecdotes and 0 posts about how this will actually hurt Freenet other than to say something brilliant along the lines of "if you aren't with us you are against us." Paypal is not a monopoly. Sack up and move on.
"going by textbook rule rather than rule and exercising discretion"
I disagree. They are using discretion. But instead of clearly explaining their position they are using ambiguous terms to disguise seemingly ad hoc decisions as standard operating policy. Their so-called policies are just another form of "anonymous proxy".
If they freeze your account, and it's your only bank account, guess what? You are absolutely fucked! There is no way for you to get money out of your bank account until paypal unfreezes it.
YOU: [ringing bank]
BANK: Good afternoon, Whatever Bank.
YOU: Yes, I just tried accessing my money and it says my account is frozen.
BANK: Okay, can I have your account number please and verification?
YOU: [give info]
BANK: Ah, yes. It seems we received a call from a company in a different state this morning.
YOU: Okaaayyy...?
BANK: And they asked us to freeze your account for no particular reason. So we did.
YOU: Wait a second. You're saying that an unrelated third party is able to just call you up out of the blue and freeze my account in violation of my banking agreement?
BANK: Absolutely, sir. You see, we freeze all bank accounts at the request of any unknown third party.
YOU: So if I asked you to freeze your own personal account...?
BANK: You bastard. Now *my* money is frozen and I can't do anything until you authorize me to unfreeze it.
YOU: Hah, now you know what it's like.
BANK: Actually, we're just joking with you. You see, according to banking regulations, you are our customer. The only time we would ever freeze an account is if the bank is going to be out some money and we need to put a reserve on the money you already have with us.
YOU: But I read on Slashdot...
BANK: Yes, we've been getting calls about that all day. It seems that somebody on Slashdot has been spreading FUD.
YOU: Well, maybe I shouldn't be surprised.
BANK: Hey, it's Slashdot, isn't it? I'll fancy a guess and say that the person who said that didn't present any evidence to back it up?
YOU: Yeah, that's exactly right.
BANK: We have to deal with people like that all day. They make unsubstantiated claims about what PayPal can or can't do. Why, just the other day, a customer said that PayPal sold their home without them knowing it just so that PayPal could recover a chargeback!
YOU: Oh come on!
BANK: No, I'm serious. You'd be surprised what other people can come up with when the burden of proof is absent.
YOU: Actually, I probably wouldn't be. From time to time, I read Slashdot at -1.
BANK: [laughs] On Friday, someone said that the GNAA acquired this bank.
YOU: [laughing hysterically] Oh, that's a good one. Well, I guess my account can't be frozen then?
BANK: Of course not. At least not by PayPal. They would need a court order to do something like that.
YOU: Thanks, that's good to know.
BANK: No problem. Have a good afternoon!
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
The writeup clearly says "Paypal is sending them a check for their remaining balance." So how is anybody being scammed? They are getting the money that is rightfully theres, and after that paypal no longer wishes to do business with them. I don't see the big deal.
I'd rather be lucky than good.
If Paypal doesn't like the aims of the Freenet project, perhaps they may be within their legal rights to drop the account. But it's certainly not very ethical. Suppose other major corporations behaved the same way...
- "Sorry, sir, McDonalds will not sell you hamburgers because of your registered political party."
- "No, you can't buy a Ford automobile because records show that you have donated money to the ACLU."
- "Because you protested the war, you can't open a checking account with Bank of America."
- "SBC has disonnected your telephone service because you've written software that is released under the GPL."
Do you want to live in that world? Or do you want corporations to have to treat individuals in a nondiscriminatory fashion?[I'm obviously not claiming that the corporations I've named have any such policies; they were chosen arbitrarily as examples.]