After posting our victory in the change in wording of PayPal's policies to better protect online entertainers, social media and email became aflame with a wide range of emotional and confused responses. I decided to call PayPal for myself to clarify their policies, procedures and what the new policy update meant for online entertainers. The first thing I need to report is that our petition WAS a success in having PayPal better protect online entertainers against chargebacks through their service. Despite some heated opposition on social media, my call confirmed that partly because of our work, adding the word "donation" to PayPal's policies DID change how PayPal protects online entertainers who receive tips/donations through their service. As of November 19, 2016, if you set up a donation button link, which does NOT require you to be a non-profit/charity, you will be protected against chargebacks through PayPal's service (but not protected from chargebacks through a credit card company, more on this later). Here is what I learned from my call, in which I spoke to two policy experts at PayPal, for over an hour. (Disclaimer: Always seek your own legal/financial counsel. Legal/financial definitions/laws/rules may vary based on your locale.): -As of November 19, 2016: If you accept your money online through PayPal's donation button, the person giving the money is NOT eligible for Buyer Protection, which excludes them from PayPal's chargeback process. This means that the new policy from PayPal DOES, as of Novermber 19 2016, protect online entertainers from PayPal's chargebacks if money is accepted through the donation button. -To set up a "donation" button, you do NOT need to be a registered non-profit/charity. PayPal's wording of "donation" is not represented in the legal sense of the word in conjunction with the non-profit/charity industry. ANYONE can set up the button and ANYONE can receive funds through the "donation" button. It's up to you if you want to call the money you receive a donation or a tip, but using PayPal's donation does not mean that you are misrepresenting yourself as a non-profit/charity if accepting money for your own uses. You are merely accepting money in the form of a gift, according to PayPal. -Despite PayPal, as of November 19 2016, protecting online entertainers who accept money through their donation button system, despite their new policy wording, a malicious/fraudulent tipper/donator can STILL go straight to their credit card company or bank and directly tell them that they wish to dispute a charge to their card or a withdrawal from their account. From there the credit card company or bank would contact PayPal and an investigation would have to take place. While this is not a PayPal chargeback situation, the result is the same. PayPal cannot do anything about this, but follow its procedures for a dispute. As with the chargeback situation, you then provide PayPal with your evidence that the dispute is fraudulent and why you think that is. PayPal forwards the information to the credit card company or bank and they make the decision about the charge or withdrawal. As you can see, our petition worked. Online entertainers, due to the new policy wording and as of November 19 2016, are now protected against misuse of PayPal's chargeback system, provided they use the donation button system to accept money from their communities through PayPal. Malicious/fraudulent PayPal users will NOT be able to dispute a tip/donation with PayPal's chargeback system (Buyer Protection). A loophole still exists outside of PayPal, where the malicious/fraudulent tipper/donator can go outside of PayPal's system and dispute the charge or withdrawal directly with their credit card company or bank. Perhaps a new petition is needed to appeal to the credit card companies and banks to address this still existing loophole outside of PayPal's system. Thanks partly to us, PayPal will be a more secure option for online entertainers to use in the near future. Thanks again for your work on this petition and here's to our success in raising our voices together for positive change! --------------------------------------------- Mike tvsboh@gmail.com twitch.tv/tvsboh