That’s the part we have to combat. The idea that being a fan of something means any contribution you do to the fandom has to be treated as essentially unpaid workforce for the franchise. In truth, it’s nothing in the fact that you are a fan, but rather the fact that the thing you are a fan of is defended by some of the vilest scume of the earth (lawyers) that is a problem.

Down with copyright law!

In this year of 2025? No. But it still is basically setting oneself for failure from the perspective of Graphene, IMO. Like, the strongest protection in the world (assuming Graphene even is, which is quite a tall order statement) is useless if it only works on the mornings of a Tuesday that falls in a prime number day that has a blue moon and where there are no ATP tennis matches going on. Everyone else is, like, living in the real world, and the uniqueness of your scenario is going to go down the drain once your users get presented with a $5 wrench, or even cheaper: a waterboard. Because cops, let alone ICE, are not going to stop to ask you if they can make you more comfortable with your privacy being violated.

I was gonna make a pun, but I’m not in any hurry for it to come out.

That still sounds like choosing to me. Like, if your project requirements are so strict that it only works on the mornings of a Tuesday that falls in a prime number day that has a blue moon and where there are no ATP tennis matches going on (all pre-existing things you have no vote on), maybe you should re-evaluate if you actually want your proyect to have a viable audience.

We can only wait and see how other phone manufacturers react to this.

Honestly, it’s obvious how they will react. After all, they’d have to pass a certification process if they want to be able to ship Google stuff.

Nothing in any of those three words precludes payment (it’s work after all) but it’s still notoriously scummy. A donation jar would make far more sense.

or a brand whose phones support their requirements other than google.

Wasn’t Graphene’s “selling point” for long being that nothing but Pixels can match their reqs? I don’t see why any current band would want to make it easier for them, and I also don’t see new brand significantly entering the market.

Graphene boiled themselves in their own frogpan.

To be fair, it’s entirely reasonable to be able to expect that paying money for something should get you the thing you paid for.

Fam, it’s 2025, the last time what you say was entirely reasonable was, what, 1986?

GOS has lots of time to - even before their very own conception - to see the writing on the wall.

This is the kind of content I got to lemmy for.

Piefex! Pixelfie! Fedfed! I always get them mixed up!!! I’m Fedfed up with it! XD

Thanks for the notice.

Also interesting note on mbin, I tend to forget it can do that and it has also a lot of other niceties, but I have experimented very little with mbin. My account sits 3 weeks unused

Then the next best thing to do is to support instances directly. I’d guess most of them have a tip jar or donation box.

Be aware that if supporting unsavory people is your issue, you might want to skip some payment processors and pay the instance hoster directly. Some payment processors, like PayPal or Stripe, are into some unsavory stuff such as targetting sex workers, or appropriating your savings if you post speech they disagree with, or blocking access to service in countries of the third world.

I just don’t want my opinion to be censored for political reasons. That’s what I had hoped for from Lemmy – not some propaganda bullshit. Do you really see this platform as a counterpart to Truth Social?

Literally look at Truth Social. Or better, don’t. For a social platform to be healthy, it needs to be censored for poitical reasons. It’s just the political reasons have to be about, and for, good.

Just to be real:

Every instance is an example of arbitrary censorship. It’s just that .ml is specifically about a kind of censorship you don’t like.

All that said, there is no “should”. Donations are voluntary, they are not the only way to contribute to the development of the fediverse, and there is already both alternatives and competition, and you could support those instead. I hear Pixelfed is making the rounds.

Malicious compliance could be of help? For example, blocking the streaming sites for their endpoints that are local to France, if any?