[Steven Lyle Jordan]

As long as we're batting around ways to make e-books workable, profitable and fair for the majority of people, I felt we might add this to the list of subjects to discuss.

The Patronage or Subsidization system is essentially the process of convincing some organization to finance the author of a work, allowing that author to give his work away for free. The benefit is two-fold: The author gets a salary for their work; and the patron or subsidizer gets the props for doing the subsidization (Heck, they can probably take it out of their taxes at the end of the year, in some countries).

The model can be designed to assume that X number of eyes will see the work, and the author is paid by the patron/subsidizer according to the projected X. (Usually, future agreements and payments can be amended according to measurements of actual X.)

Conversely, the model can simply pay a lump sum that corresponds to the author's agreed-upon worth.

If we're talking about an individual patron, there's not much here to discuss, I think. But a patron can also be a seller of a product, and said patronage could come in the form of advertising content added to the work. This brings to mind TV and movies, where commercials and product placement are added to promote the advertiser's product.

Subsidization can mean that a group of people will be charged by the group that is subsidizing the author... for instance, if a corporation subsidizes an author, they may raise the cost of their products to the consumer to compensate for the subsidization. Or, if the government subsidizes an author, they add it to the populace's tax base. Herein often lies the rub, as much of the general public may not be happy about an individual author that is being financed by their money/taxes. Artists of controversial material (homosexuality-based art, for example) have been the brunt of such criticism and attacks in the U.S. in the past.

In either model, there is the possibility (however slight) that the patron/subsidizer might influence the creative work, or stifle the author's creativity based on their own interests or bias.

But the clear benefit to any of these models is the "apparently" free nature of the work, which minimizes or removes the threat of loss through piracy or copyright infringement. It makes it easier on the consumer, for their purchases are paid for later, through taxes or increased product costs, and can be an essentially "invisible" charge to them. DRM can be abandoned, internet monitoring and surveillance is not needed, and work can be distributed worldwide, with no concern over price differences across borders.

How likely is it that the patronage/subsidization model can work for individual artists in this day and age? What (if anything) is in place, and what needs to be developed? Are certain artists better off pursuing one model over the other? Are certain countries likely to be more supportive of this idea than others? Are other countries likely to fight this model, or to challenge its fairness?

Discussion is invited.