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Google Starts Charging a Signup Fee For Chrome Extension Developers

Posted by Soulskill on from the got-my-mind-on-my-money dept.

trooperer writes "On Thursday, Google introduced two significant changes in the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery: a developer signup fee and a domain verification system. The signup fee is a one-time payment of $5. The announcement says its purpose is to 'create better safeguards against fraudulent extensions in the gallery and limit the activity of malicious developer accounts.' Developers who already registered with the gallery can continue to update their extensions and publish new items without paying the fee." Google also made available a developer preview for the Chrome Web Store.

1 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:rhinestone bullet by mlts · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It raises the bar though, and makes for offenses that can be charged if the person doing credit card fraud is caught.

    A physical example. If a bike is leaning against a wall, that is just a mere theft. If it has a crappy lock, it is theft and property destruction. If the bike has a good lock and is locked to a parking meter in such a way that it can't be lifted off, then some thief cuts off the parking meter head, the thief is now facing larceny charges, as well as destruction of state/federal property. Similar with keeping things behind a display case. Smashing glass to grab something usually gets a lot more charges than grabbing something off a rack and bolting for the door.

    I agree though -- nothing is 100%, but this makes fraudsters have to do more work, and potentially face more jail time if caught.