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ASK DLS: What do you think about Mozilla passing the collection plate for add-on developers?

There are plenty of Mozilla add-ons already say "Brother, can you spare a dime (if you like me)?" Mozilla is looking to take things one step further with a new Add-ons Contributions Program.

Donations will be accepted through Paypal, who offer reduced fees on micropayments under $12. Developers wanting to push the contributions button can do so using the new options in their Developer Tools for their add-ons.

What's the motivation for Mozilla here? Why, to help developers out, of course. Though if you read the blog post, it's fairly clear that at some point they'll start asking for a "handling fee:"
For this pilot, Mozilla will not earn a percentage of any contributions made by users. Developers will receive all the proceeds from contributions minus the PayPal transaction fee. (emphasis added)
Contributions are, of course, completely optional and the project is totally experimental right now. How things shake out if this evolves beyond a pilot program remains to be seen.

What are your feelings about this? Share 'em in the comments!

Tags: contributions, donations, firefox-addons, money, opensource

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