micropayments revisited
For those who participate in this discussion following a post here on aov about the death of the free web, you may find this comic interesting as it deals with the topic of file-sharing and micropayments.
The comic, by Scott McCloud is interesting for what it says and for how it says it. Check out I Can't Stop Thinking #6.
my question is: what's it going to take to get this off the ground?
As opposed to written things which are interesting for other reasons. Like maybe you spilled some ketchup on it or something.
Sorry.
The reason Napster was so popular was because it was free and easy. Micropayments will never be that huge, especially if they do it by credit card.
Maybe it could show up on your internet bill, much like a long distance bill. Who knows? I just can't see it actually working.
And speaking of free music, WinMX is the program I've been using for the last two days, and I do believe it is a better program than Napster ever was. All types of media and a huge database. Check it out, it's worth it.
i think the biggest question of micropayments is whether they will be handled directly by credit card companies and banks, micropayment companies or a combination of both. perhaps a better question is, who will do it best?
if you want a good file sharing client, try kazaa. you can even get full length movies.
yes, i see the irony in suggesting ways to get free media in a comment on a post about micropayments. perhaps this highlights the need for a viable micropayment system.
file sharing provides a flexibility that could be extremely useful to many users. perhaps a user wants to download only one song by an artist, multiple versions of the same song by different artists or simply songs of a certian genre. i can't count how many times i have searched for something on napster and ended up downloading something related by artist, genre or title that i was glad i found. (for music lovers: try searching for "african drumming") one advantage is that the same people that would need to jump on the micropayment bandwagon to make it a success are already familiar with napster.
food for thought. what do you think?
I don't remember what it was called, and i never could get it to run, but it was an intresting idea.
The software isaac brought up is interesting, but not too useful. Aren't you just creating an artificial barrier to file sharing? I guess it would prevent freeloaders, like public FTP sites with upload/download ratio requirements.
The idea is, the boundaries are there, but any who shares their intellectual property will pretty easily by-pass them. Plus, you get to set the cost for your own information.
Its almost communist!! But like communism, it relies on the idea of an ideal work.
http://www.mojonation.net/
Again, intresting idea, but i never could get it to work.
