F-Droid and Google's Developer Registration Decree

The F-Droid project has posted anurgent message regarding Google's plan to require developerregistration to install apps on Android devices.

The F-Droid project cannot require that developers register theirapps through Google, but at the same time, we cannot "take over"the application identifiers for the open-source apps we distribute,as that would effectively seize exclusive distribution rights tothose applications.

If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decreewill end the F-Droid project and other free/open-source appdistribution sources as we know them today, and the world will bedeprived of the safety and security of the catalog of thousands ofapps that can be trusted and verified by any and all. F-Droid'smyriad users will be left adrift, with no means to install - oreven update their existing installed - applications.