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Comment by stale | Hacker News Reader

I was rooting for the OP up to the point when he said he was charging for the app. I know there wasn't some huge profit to be made there unless it's really huge school, but still. If he wanted to do something good for the school and fellow students shouldn't the app be free?

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Profit = Sales - Apple's cut - Apple Developer Account annual fee - iTunes App Store annual fee.

What makes you think he will be making a profit on a $0.99 app ?

Likely he was not making any profit at all. Are you suggesting he shouldn't try to claw back some of his costs ?

And now they reject his app; he takes it down and definitely won't claw back anything. Now he is down $200 + time and effort. Yeah, screw him for trying to make money off the backs of anyone.

Either way, IMO, students shouldn't be the ones paying (yes, I know it's only 1$). Maybe he should have made an arrangement with the school so they cover the Apple fees or fund it through donations.

The information was on the web. Students didn't have to pay the $1 to get to the information; they would have paid it because he made a nice, convenient app. Or they could go in via the website and dig through it themselves.

Did you read the story ? He tried to talk to the school but after several school employees told him they liked his app they changed their tune and decided he was ripping them off. T hey could have worked to understand what he had done and offered him his costs to open up the app but they decided not to.

Because it's wrong to be compensated for one's efforts, even a tiny little bit, even with the risk of being shutdown and in the hole for Apple's fees before seeing the first penny?

Coding stuff takes time and effort. It's really cool if you can give stuff for free, but I do not see why he's in the wrong to charge for his work.

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