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Comment by gerryp | Hacker News Reader

Hey Eric,

So we brokered this app acquisition. The seller (original coder of the app) sold the ownership to this buyer. After paying for and receiving the app, this buyer initiated a wrongful chargeback (we paid out the seller already, so we took the hit as the broker and escrow provider).

So in essence, since he "returned" the app to us, we now own it, and therefore, the app developer community now owns it.

Does that make sense?

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OK, totally clear now. It wasn't at first clear to me what had happened to the seller. In any case, I think your decision to open source the app was totally reasonable, given the buyer's failure to pay for exclusive ownership. Just glad to hear the seller was taken care of. And thanks for the BSD license -- it's a generous license.

You should clarify this in the blog post. (Also a good marketing tool!) I was reaching for my pitchfork as I was reading.

Just thinking out loud here - Is it possible for you to determine whether the buyer and seller were related somehow ?

Really wild point. So malicious, but i guess in the same sense that would be a "clever" way to "pay yourself". The seller is someone we have worked with before and has multiple listings with Apptopia (and has had them for a few months now). They also have separate payment profiles. So if they are the same, they have gone through great lengths to hide it...

Still good to keep an eye on. Thanks for making me think through it.

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