ADC Terms and Conditions

[Peli]

Dear developers,

The terms and conditions for the Android Developer Challenge have been
officially announced:

http://groups.google.com/group/android-challenge/browse_frm/thread/17c42ed7038c0f2e
http://code.google.com/android/adc-submit/tandc.html

Unfortunately, it means that most of the rules that we set up in
http://code.google.com/p/openintents/wiki/WeShareThePrize
may be interpreted as cheating on the competition:

"if you engage in some sort of contract or promise
that they will get the prize money for work, this could be considered
fraudulent and a forfeiture of the prize. The fraudulent case includes
the case where only one developer registers but agrees to pay other
developers based on the prize money. At least this is how I would read
it. "
http://groups.google.com/group/android-challenge/browse_frm/thread/c48a4b84076a6e61/169e57469cb67e51

It therefore seems inevitable that we have to change the rules:
Based on the terms and conditions, I'd suggest that in order to fully
comply and not risk being completely disqualified, we will drop all
"idea" (30%) and "rest" (10%) part and drop the idea that other
projects could give money to OpenIntents should they win. All of the
competition money (100%) will be shared among all developers that are
all signed up for the contest, in a fair way (those who contribute
more shall receive more, and I'd suggest a system as set up here:
http://code.google.com/p/openintents/wiki/DeveloperPoints )

Let me know if anybody would be against such a change or has serious
complaints against this.
Luckily, most of the serious ideas have been contributed by developers
who will be part of the team anyway.
I feel sorry for those who submitted their ideas in good trust and who
we have to disappoint now.

From all developers that want to seriously participate in the
competition, I will need a written consent that they are eligible to
participate and agree to Google's Terms and Conditions
http://code.google.com/android/adc-submit/tandc.html , providing me
with all information necessary to submit our common work to the
competition. (I'll send out information on this separately).

Let me know of any concerns. Otherwise I will go ahead, and in a
couple of days change the terms as outlined above. It also means we
will reduce our team size, so all developers who are interested in
continuing to officially be part of OpenIntents, let me know. Also,
after the first round, no new official members can be accepted.

Regardless of this, the OpenIntents project as an open source project
will continue to play the important role to provide "open intents",
regardless of the outcome of the competition.

Peli

[eshriek_...@gmail.com]

It is good that you are on this now rather than catching it later.

Are you in contact with someone from Google who can steer this in the
right direction?

[Zero]

excuse me for cross-posting, but i guess it's better discussed here
then on the other thread.
if we need to form an legal entity, i dislike the idea of a company,
as this is doesn't feel open source enugh to me. instead, we could go
with a "verein" (club is a vague translation) - this is easy to form
and afaik allows access for interntatiol members, too.
if we stay in "loose formation" it may be usefull to delay
registration as much as possible to gather as much developers in the
team as possible.
i agree with peli's change to the prize sharing modell; I'm in for the
fun of it after all - when i started coding it was just to see where i
could get with the new platform, worrying to much about that prize
ain't as important to me as to see something cool done here.

Zero

[Peli]

Hi Zero,

I like your idea of a "Verein" (voluntary association). If our group
grows larger, then definitely we should consider forming something
like that. (if the core of serious developers stays small, say 4 or 5,
we could just go with signing up listing each group member).

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verein

There seem to be three common subgroups:
* "Eingetragener Verein": (non-profit voluntary association) Seems
perfect for us, but they may not gain money for profit. I have no idea
if "winning a competition" is considered making money for profit?

* "Nicht rechtsfähiger Verein": Will this be allowed to participate as
"business entity" in the competition?

* "Rechtsfähige wirtschaftliche Vereine": Probably this is the most
appropriate, although we don't have any interest in making money after
the competition...

Has anyone contact to a relative or friend who is lawyer in Germany
and may help in this question?

I've started a discussion thread on the Google challenge group:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-challenge/browse_frm/thread/4cfb5003d63dabfe

Let's see if anybody answers.

Peli

PS: eshriek: No, so far I have not received any direct answer from any
of the people of Google. I hope they can give public answers that may
be useful also to other people.

[Peli]

Hi all,

We got confirmation that we may participate as "Verein" (~Voluntary
association) in this competition!! See:

http://groups.google.com/group/android-challenge/browse_frm/thread/4cfb5003d63dabfe

This may have several advantages, also from the taxation point of
view.

Now we just have to see which of these subgroups mentioned would be
most appropriate for us. Does any of the German group members know
someone who might help on this point?

Again: As long as we stay only 3 or 4 doing really serious coding, we
may as well participate as a usual group, but if we grow larger (which
may be the case given the increased interest in our project), then
something like a voluntary association should be taken into
consideration.

Peli

[Peli]

I guess we need at least 7 people in Germany to found a "Verein":
* http://www.notardrpeterschmitz.de/broschuere/verein.html
* http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vereinsrecht_in_Deutschland

If we stay smaller than that, we will simply go with listing each
member as a group submission.

Peli

[Zero]

Hi
yep we need 7 people. I guess we could go with "Eingetragener Verein":
(non-profit voluntary association), as making money is not our main
target and claiming a price in a competition is perfectly acceptable,
as i understand it. We should make a deadline for deciding, because if
we have to form such an association it will require us to meet in RL
someplace as I understand it.

On Jan 10, 3:41 pm, Peli <peli0...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I guess we need at least 7 people in Germany to found a "Verein":
> *http://www.notardrpeterschmitz.de/broschuere/verein.html

> *http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vereinsrecht_in_Deutschland