Paypal stealing from Xorg [was: Re: Board voting ends today, but...]

[Hélder Gomes]

What money disapearing into Brazil banking system?

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 4:19 PM, Steffen Schaumburg <
steffen at schaumburger.info> wrote:

> On 22/02/10 18:18, Franco Catrin L. wrote:
> > El vie, 19-02-2010 a las 07:57 +0800, Jaya Kumar escribió:
> >
> >> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 5:45 AM, Daniel Stone <daniel at fooishbar.org>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>> $US24k for travel sponsorship (no joke), and something like $US5k lost
> >>> to PayPal (they decided we were scammers and took our money) as well as
> >>> around $US5k that vanished into the Brazilian banking system, which
> >>>
> >> That is scary, USD$10k gone! I'm surprised that no one raised this
> >> issue into a big public complaint, or maybe someone already did and I
> >> just didn't notice. I'm not familiar with the US legal system, but
> >> surely there is a small claims court where one can quickly assert a
> >> claim and put the burden of an honest response on Paypal?
> >>
> > The US legal system is prone to this type of abuse.
> >
> > I wrote an article about this situation in a well known spanish blog
> > [*], may be someone can do the same in english.
> >
> > I don't think that it would help the Foundation get back the money, but
> > at least it may help to take this abuse into public knowledge
> >
> I completely agree. I'll spare you my opinion of the US criminal justice
> system, but this is a clear case of organised theft (or fraud or
> embezzlement - IANAL) whether or not it is possible to get a conviction.
> There's two key points to consider:
> - eBay (owners of Paypal) will continue these crimes without a doubt -
> why shouldn't they?
> - Many free software projects/developers use or will use eBay/Paypal to
> receive donations/payments - and eBay will inevitably steal from some of
> these. Whilst Xorg survived relatively unscathed with the $5k missing
> most projects would be hurt BADLY if they got their donations account
> stolen.
>
> I propose the following actions:
> - Unless it's definitely a complete waste of time civil as well as
> criminal charges should be brought by Xorg against eBay, as far as this
> is possible without undue costs or risks to Xorg. Remember - just
> because the contract says that eBay can steal doesn't mean it's not a
> crime if they actually do it. Laws supersede contracts.
> - Information about this (especially emails from eBay "support") should
> be made public and should be publicised, e.g. by emails to this list,
> the Xorg Wiki (on that note - there's actually a suggestion on there to
> use Paypal to donate to Xorg devs...), etc. Due to the particularly
> despicable nature of the crime (what kind of a sick perverted bastard
> steals from a charity?) and the likely negative effect on other related
> projects I'd go as far as putting a link or banner about this right on
> the front page.
>
> Cheers, Steffen
>
> PS: Bear in mind that my choice of words may not be the best if one is
> concerned about lawsuits by eBay for e.g. slander ;)
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