AFAIK direct collection of any revenue (besides ads which are indirect) outside the market payment system is against the terms. The line: (3.3) "You may also choose to distribute Products for free. If the Product is free, you will not be charged a Transaction Fee. You may not collect future charges from users for copies of the Products that those users were initially allowed to download for free." Seems to prohibit any sort of payment collection for free products.
Of course, that doesn't mean there won't be subscription or other models added in the future. In my experience, individual Googlers really have no idea what the terms of the products they support mean, nor do a lot of them care one way or the other. Tim Bray said this yesterday (http://news.cnet.com/ 8301-30684_3-20011241-265.html) "the Android Market development is handled by a separate group." I've heard this time and time again. Where is this mysterious Android market group located? Who are these mystery people? Can anyone name one of them? Perhaps they're located on Mars and they can only communicate their changes when the Earth makes its closest approach every two years. This means to me that Android folks have no idea what's really allowed in the market. Just because Google isn't following up on their terms right now doesn't mean that one day they won't crack down and start blacklisting apps that don't follow the rules. A couple of years ago one of my seemingly innocuous web apps was deemed to be against the maps terms and I got a take down notice. It was done very quietly and very nicely, but still, it happened. Bottom line: Just because you can get away with it at the moment doesn't mean it isn't in violation of the terms. -John Coryat -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
