Restricted Financial Support for Open-Source?

Anonymous Writer asks: "PayPal has become the standard for making donations to Open-Source projects, and in many cases the only way. Out of the 247 countries and territories represented by top-level domains on the Internet, credit cards are available in 128. However, PayPal only accepts credit cards from 45 of these countries, which excludes 83 from using their service. Nearly two-thirds of the countries on the Internet with valid credit card billing services are currently prevented from making donations using PayPal. Even credit cards issued from those 45 accepted countries with billing addresses not among them are excluded, which affects people working overseas and expatriots. If you want to support the Open-Source Software movement but don't live in a PayPal-accepted country, what are your alternatives?"

Comments

Alternatives.....

[Reducer2001]

Report bugs, submit patches, create your own software, and helping people troubleshoot problems in forums are ways to contribute if you live in a country that Pay Pal isn't accepting credit cards from. You can also do this in a country that Pay Pal DOES accept credit cards from, if you're broke.

An Envelope, A Folded Piece of Paper, Cash

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Don't forget a stamp. Any questions?

Re:An Envelope, A Folded Piece of Paper, Cash

[n1ywb]

yeah or a check or a money order or a travelers check. I mean really, WTF kind of question is this anyway?

Re:An Envelope, A Folded Piece of Paper, Cash

[0racle]

I've never seen paypal advertize or do anything to con or convince net users of anything. So wouldn't it be that it's really sad to see stupid people?

Re:An Envelope, A Folded Piece of Paper, Cash

[E_elven]

yeah or a check or a money order or a travelers check. I mean really, WTF kind of question is this anyway?

Er.

The U.S. is the only civilized place that still uses cheques. I'll venture to guess that the U.S. is one of the countries that is on the PayPal credit card whitelist.

Now, even if a cheque were an appropriate option, one from another state is often not able to be cashed, let alone one from another country.

There is such a thing as an 'international cheque', but those take about two to four weeks to clear at the recipient's bank.

So, NO, those really aren't good options.

Sending cash (particularly to another country) is simply stupid and deserves no further exploration.

However you normally send money...

[Elwood P Dowd]

If there isn't enough money involved to justify a credit card merchant account for the OSS group, then send them money however you'd normally send money to an individual in a foreign nation.

Yeah, that's hard.

But what the hell does it have to do with Open Source? Or geekery in general?

Donations? Better idea!

[quamaretto]

For the kind of money that would constitute a significant donation to an open-source project in western civilization, you could train a team of smart teenagers in a third world country into programmers and food, clothe and house them as they create their own damn open source projects. Hell, as Squeak proves, children can be programmers too! High potential children in third world countries are a great area of untapped programmer potential that can only be tapped by open source projects for serious legal reasons.

Quit Fixating On "Projects"

[John Hasler]

> If you want to support the Open-Source Software
> movement but don't live in a PayPal-accepted
> country, what are your alternatives?"

Pick a developer (preferably not a big-name one) and mail him a check or money order.

Banned?

[fm6]

Paypal hasn't "banned" any country. They started out as a U.S.-only operation and have been grandually adding other countries to their system. Given the complexities of international financial transfers, it's hardly suprising that they haven't yet covered the entire planet.