Copyright is Out of Sight - Page 48

HarryT · 03-18-2011, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giggleton

lol, thanks for pointing out the typo, do you have any evidence that selling things for less than a cent is not actually commercially viable?

For an organisation like Amazon to do so I'm absolutely certain is not commercially viable. The cost of all their buildings, servers, infrastructure, and above all, the costs of the staff who run it all, comes from revenue from sales. I haven't the faintest idea what those costs are, but I am sure that it comes to more than 1 cent per sale.

mr ploppy · 03-18-2011, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Groucho54

The ethical distribution of profits from food production is an example, where fair-trading is becoming more important to the end-user and the person whose labours should be rewarded.

However, I don't equate the profits of publishers with the struggling African producer of the cocoa bean.

It would be the writers who are the struggling bean growers, the publishers would be the evil Tesco/Walmart corporations exploiting them.

People might pretend to care, but in general they will still go for the lowest price. It's like child labour in clothes factories in India. If it means they save a couple of dollars on their next party dress they'll turn a blind eye to anything. It's all the fault of the nasty Indian factories anyway, nothing to do with the retailer squeezing them down on price so much that they can't afford to employ adults.

mr ploppy · 03-18-2011, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

For an organisation like Amazon to do so I'm absolutely certain is not commercially viable. The cost of all their buildings, servers, infrastructure, and above all, the costs of the staff who run it all, comes from revenue from sales. I haven't the faintest idea what those costs are, but I am sure that it comes to more than 1 cent per sale.

Those are all fixed costs. It would be the variable costs that would affect whether something was profitable to sell or not. Variable costs are costs that are only associated with a sale — for a real book it would be packaging and postage. For an ebook it would be cost of transfer. Fixed costs need to be covered too, but you do that differently, usually a percentage based on your expected annual sales.

HarryT · 03-18-2011, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Those are all fixed costs. It would be the variable costs that would affect whether something was profitable to sell or not. Variable costs are costs that are only associated with a sale — for a real book it would be packaging and postage. For an ebook it would be cost of transfer. Fixed costs need to be covered too, but you do that differently, usually a percentage based on your expected annual sales.

My point was that if all Amazon's products were sold for less than 1c, they could not afford to operate.

mr ploppy · 03-18-2011, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

My point was that if all Amazon's products were sold for less than 1c, they could not afford to operate.

That would depend on how many they sold and what the variable costs were. If their variable costs were nil, and they sold billions of them every second I'm sure it would be profitable. Most of Amazon's staff and other fixed costs are caused by them selling real items anyway. If they moved to a purely digital stock using automated systems those costs would be a lot lower.

Giggleton · 05-07-2011, 12:26 PM

I've been thinking a bit more about book distribution in a copyright free world, please let me know what you think.

Reading Sans Copyright

The history of copyright begins in the streets of London circa the the late 1600’s. Pamphleteers circulated amongst the crowds offering tracts with titles such as “Reasons humbly Offer’d for a bill for the encouragement of learning and the improvement of printing.”

In this particular pamphlet, the title of which is still reflected in the United States Constitution, a call is made for a copy protection to protect the rights of artists whose labor has gone into the production of their work, from the actions of others who would wish to copy the fruits of the artists labor for their own personal gain. The belief of the right to copy being placed squarely and solely on the creators shoulders began to take hold within the public consciousness, where it remains to this day, but there were voices of dissent then, such as Milton who spoke to copyright before parliament in “year”,

“What a collusion is this, whenas we are exhorted by the wise man to use diligence, to seek for wisdom as for hidden treasures early and late, that another order shall enjoin us to know nothing but by statute?”

Milton was referring to a printing ordinance, which mandated that all books be sent to a state run review panel where it would be determined if the book was worthy enough to be copied and circulated amongst the public. But we can just as easily apply his words to any statute or bill that seeks to limit our access to information.

The fear that without an adequate protection, authors would continue to have their words copied judiciously by any all who wished to do so was not unfounded. Indeed, piracy was rampant on the streets of London soon after the invention of movable type, whether or not this developing flower of knowledge nurtured by the flow of movable type should have been hindered by the granting of a copying monopoly on the printing of knowledge is a question for copyright academics.

But in these digital times, with copying far easier than it has ever been before, a redefining of copyright is sorely needed. With the passage of the Copyright Term Extension act almost ten years ago (check date, explain) It appears that the United States Congress, and by extension the voting public deems that a near limitless term of copyright should apply to all works. Actually named the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in memoriam of Sonny Bono who was in favor of perpetual copyright, extending to the artists descendants ad infinitum. This extension was believed to be unconstiutional by some, and argued as such in Eldred V. Ashcroft but to no avail. A near limitless term, (and at life of the creator plus 70 years this term is very near limitless) still could mean a limited amount of time which is part of the United States Constitutions original wording of the copyright act.

It does not take a constitutional scholar to realize that extending the times of the monopoly on copying that our copyright act gives to the rights holder of a particular work by itself does not grant an unlimited time, but by repeatedly extending the length of the copyright monopoly, the term has essentially become unlimited. This has weakened the public’s ability to access the storehouse of knowledge that the copyright act was supposed to create. Instead it has created a rope around the library, access is only granted if the public can afford the price of admission.

It doesn’t have to continue. The copyright monopoly was put into place to protect the rights of the creator, to give the creator the right to sell their creation. This protection was needed because movable type made the copying and printing of another’s work for sale less labor intensive than before, when texts were laboriously copied one at a time by the hand of a scribe. In these dark ages, there was no global network able to connect an author with untold numbers of readers by simply posting a link to a personal site, informing these readers of a new work that has just been uploaded. Newspapers and Town bulletin boards served this purpose in the past, and continue to work in a similar fashion today, but we also have the ability to send monetary funds directly into another’s account with a similar click. This changes the copyright scenario.

The promise of a direct link between authors and readers has been with us since the network’s inception. This link is only sparingly used to transfer funds between the reader and the author however. There are a few reasons for the limited use of this link,

1. There is no network wide standard payment method, although there are quite a few contenders vying for the position.

2. Many readers are still wary of sharing personal economic information with individual strangers, and prefer to deal with large institutions.

3. The number of individual links is too high, in fact it is nearly infinite. Only limited by the number of authors posting links to their work.

More...

Explaining Number 3 (The signal to noise ratio)

With the publics power to control the content of the network, comes a responsibility as well. A responsibility to sift through the noise and find the signal. The gem of a book amidst the rubble. For some content this is easier said than done, an image can be viewed and rated (usally) in a far shorter amount of time than a novel for instance.

And the number of books being distributed is on an ever increasing curve. We can see that the number of books being published via the traditional route, through the use of a movable type machine, distributed via trucks and storefronts has been increasing. What we cannot see, and what in fact might be impossible to see is the increase in the number of books being printed via the nontraditional means, individual authors uploading their work to individual sites, or uploading slightly altered versions of their work to a number of different sites. There are also an untold number of books that have been written, but have in the past lacked for interest from the traditional publishers. The authors of these works are now finding the network able to handle the submission of their work and its accompanying distribution.

Whether or not these author submitted works ever find their intended audience is another matter entirely. Making sure that this occurs should be our focus.

Price Equals Value

There is a certain belief, “If something is free it cannot possibly be worth anything” That I feel needs to be overcome if we are to move beyond copyright and embrace the new intellectual property economy. At the moment this book is focused exclusively on books, the printed word. The ideas in this book will most certainly apply to all aspects of intellectual property but every aspect of IP is a bit different and will need to be treated accordingly.

There is no reason why a website could not be setup for the sole purposes of distributing the classic novel, while practicing the new economic system.

What is this new system?

It is quite simple let me tell you. Books will be uploaded to the site, and made freely available to download with no restrictions of copying placed upon them. With a price of free there is no need for a copyright monopoly.

But how will the authors make any money from their work?

The authors will have to rely on their readers to submit payments. These payments could be made to the author via a payment method contained within the book and processed through the books main distribution site, or payment’s could be processed by a third party perhaps the uploader of the work themselves. We can encourage payment processing via the site by offering incentives for the site’s use.

1.Extra marketing of books (paid for placement on various channels)

2.Integration of the reading experience into a sitewide social book club

This idea of making money by giving away your work is foreign to many. Especially those who have a vested interest in accumulating monies by selling their work pre use. We don’t expect the majority of new publishers to jump on board on day one.

We do expect a certain part of the network to embrace this model however. Those who truly believe in the democratizing power of the network and wish to see its effects grow and possibly create a new and more equitable economic system.

To this end, in the beginning the site will start small, perhaps being a subset of a larger site. A section where users can upload their works into a pool, and where users of this subsection can download works, rate them, purchase them after the fact and talk about them via the site’s inhouse discussion boards, posting of which should be able to be linked to various social networking sites.

The site’s revenue would be dependent on a portion of each book’s eventual sale, revenue would also be created through the use of paid for advertising. It must be stressed now that this site is intended to be run on a shoestring budget, perhaps even as a non-profit. The purpose of this site is the distribution of knowledge, not to fatten the coffers of those whose coffers are already quite fat. The bulk of the site’s revenue will be distributed to the author’s whose work will make the site popular.

Given that the books distributed through this site will hold no DRM protection, we expect the most popular of the uploaded books to be widely distributed throughout the network. It is in the site’s best interest to maintain a method of payment with each copy of each book as it traverses the network, copying itself into various ereading devices, appearing on best of blog lists and inserting itself into ebook torrent collections.

But we must also ensure that readers of these books find it in their best interests to maintain a connection to the site of original upload, our site, as well as paying for the book they are reading. A simplest as possible click though method of payment is desired, one supported by the various ereaders currently on the market would be ideal.

There are a number of methods that our site will be able to use to connect our readers, we will be calling our site the authentic site, while all other sources of the text will be referred to as inauthentic.

1. The authentic site will offer a forum for the creators of books to interact with their readers.

Feedback is an integral part of creation and is crucial for new and developing creators. Feedback allows the creator to gauge how their work is affecting their users, and will give the creator much to consider for their future creations.

These author feedback forums will function similarly to bookstore book signings, where readers can log in and meet their favorite author in a virtual space, communicate in real time and ask questions.

2.The most active of the authentic site’s users will be given what can be considered administrative privileges on the authentic site.

These active user’s will become editors of the authentic site, highlighting selections that they enjoyed and these highlights will be given a prominent place on the homepage of the authentic site. Since the entire purpose of the authentic site is to sift through the flood of ebook releases that is rapidly approaching us, every action the site takes, every feature the site implements must work to this end.

3.The authentic site will be dedicated to finding the highest quality writing from new and unpublished writers.

Since the authentic site will function as open as possible, it is quite probable that should the site prove popular and economical enough, established authors will look towards the authentic site as their preferred distribution method. Keep in mind that the downloading of a book will come with no price attached to it and with no copy protection. The authentic site depends on the books it distributes to be freely shared as much as possible.

For mainstream authors to distribute their work on the authentic site, they would have to make their work freely available to download. As the number of mainstream authors making their work available on the authentic site increases, network effects would draw more users towards the authentic site, at first drawn by the idea of free books, but by subtly reminding our users that “There is no such thing as a free lunch” These free downloaders can be turned into paying users.

This shift will be quite difficult, but it has already been done for other media, notably music and movies. In both of these instances the media is paid for pre download however, with perhaps a sample of the content being given before the user is asked to pay. What the authentic site will offer its users is the complete text before purchase. This feature is expected to draw many to the authentic site. There are numerous sites on the network that offer their users completely free texts. These inauthentic sites will also be able to offer any books that were originally uploaded to the authentic site. Keeping people connected to the authentic site is going to be heavily dependent on an active and ongoing marketing campaign.

Authentic Marketing

In its simplest form, marketing brings to our attention goods and services that are beneficial to us. In relating the concept of the authentic store to new and current users, we must focus on a few simple ideas that can be repeated constantly from various sources without the receiver of the ideas getting tired of hearing them.

1. The authentic store is an entirely new way of shopping

There are no prices in the authentic store, this alone will draw many people to the storefront. Every shopper will be presented with a unique storefront, based on prior text selections. This storefront can be copied and sent to anyone the shopper chooses, new shoppers brought to the store will be shown their referrers storefront and then immediately start configuring their own personal storefront with their first text selection. It is imperative that this storefront remain always uncluttered. (Mockup needed)

2. The authentic store places the power of “text selection” in your hands.

Text selection is a term to describe the process where the user’s monetary contributions will slide the site’s focus towards specific genre’s of texts, the genre’s which are most popular. These focused areas of the site will also be determined by ratings of books, including download numbers. But with a very heavy emphasis on which books generate the most discussions.)

3. Read What You Need, Pay What You Can.

This is a repurposing of Marx and will at first be seen with derision and perhaps vehemence. It will have to be explained at length. Indeed this idea is at the core of the authentic site’s mission. To enable access to all texts, regardless of the reader’s economic possibilities. It is believed that with proper explanations, the vast majority of the reading public will come to understand that it is in their best interests to patronize the authentic site, contributing monetarily and contributing by participating in discussions on the authentic site, in order for others whose economic situation in the past has not allowed them to participate in the literacy movement, to now participate on an equal ground.

4. The Novel Economy

The authentic store will offer a much higher royalty rate than the inauthentic store. We can assume that the authentic store will offer a near 100% royalty rate, excepting for administrative costs of the store. The inauthentic store might offer royalty payments as well, both stores might rely on advertising for revenue, but for the inauthentic store, this will be the sole source of their revenue. We would expect that advertising plus user purchases would enable higher royalty payments through the authentic store.

The Social Reading Experience

The social aspect of reading comes before and after the act of reading itself. The authentic site will fill this space with extremely relevant book recommendations, not given by an algorithm but by word of mouth marketing from friends. And after reading, the authentic site will provide a space for readers to discuss the book, where the book’s placement on the authentic site will be made more or less prominent based on this discussion.

In the early stages of the authentic site, there will be few books listed. The authentic site is not intended to be a catalog of every book ever written, it is intended to be a highly curated subset of every book, tailored to each individual reader.

Allowing the reader to interact with and modify the contents of the authentic site will instill a sense of power in the reader and give them a greater sense of attachment to the authentic site.

DiapDealer · 05-07-2011, 12:38 PM

Never gonna happen. Looks like you spent some time on it--and it's a most impressive post-- but, ultimately, never gonna happen. I certainly wish I could pay for gasoline only after I determined that it combusted adequately in my engine, though.

Giggleton · 05-07-2011, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Never gonna happen. Looks like you spent some time on it--and it's a most impressive post-- but, ultimately, never gonna happen. I certainly wish I could pay for gasoline only after I determined that it combusted adequately in my engine, though.

This is a work in progress, and the "real" work hasn't even started yet. Your idea of paying for gasoline after burning sounds intriguing. Maybe some type of credit scheme would need to be implemented? Everyone is allotted an amount of gas credits?

mr ploppy · 05-08-2011, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giggleton

This is a work in progress, and the "real" work hasn't even started yet. Your idea of paying for gasoline after burning sounds intriguing. Maybe some type of credit scheme would need to be implemented? Everyone is allotted an amount of gas credits?

It would be easier to just charge people a flat rate per mile travelled on their credit card at the end of each month. Should be easy enough to do with satnav or iphone type devices. But they will need to do it before electric cars take over, otherwise people will just think it's a con.

Books could be charged the same way, since most reading devices spy on their owner's reading habits in the same way that satnavs spy on their travelling habits.

HarryT · 05-08-2011, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It would be easier to just charge people a flat rate per mile travelled on their credit card at the end of each month. Should be easy enough to do with satnav or iphone type devices. But they will need to do it before electric cars take over, otherwise people will just think it's a con.

It would be even easier to charge a fixed cost per litre at the petrol pump.

Oh, wait, ...

mr ploppy · 05-08-2011, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

It would be even easier to charge a fixed cost per litre at the petrol pump.

Oh, wait, ...

What about petrol pirates who fill up and drive away without paying?

HarryT · 05-08-2011, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

What about petrol pirates who fill up and drive away without paying?

There are ways around that. Eg, my local Asda now has what is essentially an unattended petrol station where you pay by credit card at the pump, and your card is authorised before the pump will give you any fuel.

DiapDealer · 05-08-2011, 09:24 AM

Quote:

There are ways around that. Eg, my local Asda now has what is essentially an unattended petrol station where you pay by credit card at the pump, and your card is authorised before the pump will give you any fuel.

This is how the vast majority of pumps works, in the States. Except there's an attendant who can turn on the pump if you prefer to use cash. But many, many now require you to pay in advance if you're paying with cash.

EDIT: But exactly none of them allow you to test drive a gallon of their gas and then come back and pay for it later.

Giggleton · 05-08-2011, 07:43 PM

It is far far easier to not drive.

elcreative · 05-08-2011, 10:15 PM

Do you have any idea how large the US is, how far people may have to go just to work let alone shop???

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giggleton

It is far far easier to not drive.

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05-07-2011, 12:26 PM	#711
Giggleton Banned Posts: 1,687 Karma: 4368191 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Oregon Device: Kindle3	I've been thinking a bit more about book distribution in a copyright free world, please let me know what you think. Reading Sans Copyright The history of copyright begins in the streets of London circa the the late 1600’s. Pamphleteers circulated amongst the crowds offering tracts with titles such as “Reasons humbly Offer’d for a bill for the encouragement of learning and the improvement of printing.” In this particular pamphlet, the title of which is still reflected in the United States Constitution, a call is made for a copy protection to protect the rights of artists whose labor has gone into the production of their work, from the actions of others who would wish to copy the fruits of the artists labor for their own personal gain. The belief of the right to copy being placed squarely and solely on the creators shoulders began to take hold within the public consciousness, where it remains to this day, but there were voices of dissent then, such as Milton who spoke to copyright before parliament in “year”, “What a collusion is this, whenas we are exhorted by the wise man to use diligence, to seek for wisdom as for hidden treasures early and late, that another order shall enjoin us to know nothing but by statute?” Milton was referring to a printing ordinance, which mandated that all books be sent to a state run review panel where it would be determined if the book was worthy enough to be copied and circulated amongst the public. But we can just as easily apply his words to any statute or bill that seeks to limit our access to information. The fear that without an adequate protection, authors would continue to have their words copied judiciously by any all who wished to do so was not unfounded. Indeed, piracy was rampant on the streets of London soon after the invention of movable type, whether or not this developing flower of knowledge nurtured by the flow of movable type should have been hindered by the granting of a copying monopoly on the printing of knowledge is a question for copyright academics. But in these digital times, with copying far easier than it has ever been before, a redefining of copyright is sorely needed. With the passage of the Copyright Term Extension act almost ten years ago (check date, explain) It appears that the United States Congress, and by extension the voting public deems that a near limitless term of copyright should apply to all works. Actually named the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in memoriam of Sonny Bono who was in favor of perpetual copyright, extending to the artists descendants ad infinitum. This extension was believed to be unconstiutional by some, and argued as such in Eldred V. Ashcroft but to no avail. A near limitless term, (and at life of the creator plus 70 years this term is very near limitless) still could mean a limited amount of time which is part of the United States Constitutions original wording of the copyright act. It does not take a constitutional scholar to realize that extending the times of the monopoly on copying that our copyright act gives to the rights holder of a particular work by itself does not grant an unlimited time, but by repeatedly extending the length of the copyright monopoly, the term has essentially become unlimited. This has weakened the public’s ability to access the storehouse of knowledge that the copyright act was supposed to create. Instead it has created a rope around the library, access is only granted if the public can afford the price of admission. It doesn’t have to continue. The copyright monopoly was put into place to protect the rights of the creator, to give the creator the right to sell their creation. This protection was needed because movable type made the copying and printing of another’s work for sale less labor intensive than before, when texts were laboriously copied one at a time by the hand of a scribe. In these dark ages, there was no global network able to connect an author with untold numbers of readers by simply posting a link to a personal site, informing these readers of a new work that has just been uploaded. Newspapers and Town bulletin boards served this purpose in the past, and continue to work in a similar fashion today, but we also have the ability to send monetary funds directly into another’s account with a similar click. This changes the copyright scenario. The promise of a direct link between authors and readers has been with us since the network’s inception. This link is only sparingly used to transfer funds between the reader and the author however. There are a few reasons for the limited use of this link, 1. There is no network wide standard payment method, although there are quite a few contenders vying for the position. 2. Many readers are still wary of sharing personal economic information with individual strangers, and prefer to deal with large institutions. 3. The number of individual links is too high, in fact it is nearly infinite. Only limited by the number of authors posting links to their work. More... Explaining Number 3 (The signal to noise ratio) With the publics power to control the content of the network, comes a responsibility as well. A responsibility to sift through the noise and find the signal. The gem of a book amidst the rubble. For some content this is easier said than done, an image can be viewed and rated (usally) in a far shorter amount of time than a novel for instance. And the number of books being distributed is on an ever increasing curve. We can see that the number of books being published via the traditional route, through the use of a movable type machine, distributed via trucks and storefronts has been increasing. What we cannot see, and what in fact might be impossible to see is the increase in the number of books being printed via the nontraditional means, individual authors uploading their work to individual sites, or uploading slightly altered versions of their work to a number of different sites. There are also an untold number of books that have been written, but have in the past lacked for interest from the traditional publishers. The authors of these works are now finding the network able to handle the submission of their work and its accompanying distribution. Whether or not these author submitted works ever find their intended audience is another matter entirely. Making sure that this occurs should be our focus. Price Equals Value There is a certain belief, “If something is free it cannot possibly be worth anything” That I feel needs to be overcome if we are to move beyond copyright and embrace the new intellectual property economy. At the moment this book is focused exclusively on books, the printed word. The ideas in this book will most certainly apply to all aspects of intellectual property but every aspect of IP is a bit different and will need to be treated accordingly. There is no reason why a website could not be setup for the sole purposes of distributing the classic novel, while practicing the new economic system. What is this new system? It is quite simple let me tell you. Books will be uploaded to the site, and made freely available to download with no restrictions of copying placed upon them. With a price of free there is no need for a copyright monopoly. But how will the authors make any money from their work? The authors will have to rely on their readers to submit payments. These payments could be made to the author via a payment method contained within the book and processed through the books main distribution site, or payment’s could be processed by a third party perhaps the uploader of the work themselves. We can encourage payment processing via the site by offering incentives for the site’s use. 1.Extra marketing of books (paid for placement on various channels) 2.Integration of the reading experience into a sitewide social book club This idea of making money by giving away your work is foreign to many. Especially those who have a vested interest in accumulating monies by selling their work pre use. We don’t expect the majority of new publishers to jump on board on day one. We do expect a certain part of the network to embrace this model however. Those who truly believe in the democratizing power of the network and wish to see its effects grow and possibly create a new and more equitable economic system. To this end, in the beginning the site will start small, perhaps being a subset of a larger site. A section where users can upload their works into a pool, and where users of this subsection can download works, rate them, purchase them after the fact and talk about them via the site’s inhouse discussion boards, posting of which should be able to be linked to various social networking sites. The site’s revenue would be dependent on a portion of each book’s eventual sale, revenue would also be created through the use of paid for advertising. It must be stressed now that this site is intended to be run on a shoestring budget, perhaps even as a non-profit. The purpose of this site is the distribution of knowledge, not to fatten the coffers of those whose coffers are already quite fat. The bulk of the site’s revenue will be distributed to the author’s whose work will make the site popular. Given that the books distributed through this site will hold no DRM protection, we expect the most popular of the uploaded books to be widely distributed throughout the network. It is in the site’s best interest to maintain a method of payment with each copy of each book as it traverses the network, copying itself into various ereading devices, appearing on best of blog lists and inserting itself into ebook torrent collections. But we must also ensure that readers of these books find it in their best interests to maintain a connection to the site of original upload, our site, as well as paying for the book they are reading. A simplest as possible click though method of payment is desired, one supported by the various ereaders currently on the market would be ideal. There are a number of methods that our site will be able to use to connect our readers, we will be calling our site the authentic site, while all other sources of the text will be referred to as inauthentic. 1. The authentic site will offer a forum for the creators of books to interact with their readers. Feedback is an integral part of creation and is crucial for new and developing creators. Feedback allows the creator to gauge how their work is affecting their users, and will give the creator much to consider for their future creations. These author feedback forums will function similarly to bookstore book signings, where readers can log in and meet their favorite author in a virtual space, communicate in real time and ask questions. 2.The most active of the authentic site’s users will be given what can be considered administrative privileges on the authentic site. These active user’s will become editors of the authentic site, highlighting selections that they enjoyed and these highlights will be given a prominent place on the homepage of the authentic site. Since the entire purpose of the authentic site is to sift through the flood of ebook releases that is rapidly approaching us, every action the site takes, every feature the site implements must work to this end. 3.The authentic site will be dedicated to finding the highest quality writing from new and unpublished writers. Since the authentic site will function as open as possible, it is quite probable that should the site prove popular and economical enough, established authors will look towards the authentic site as their preferred distribution method. Keep in mind that the downloading of a book will come with no price attached to it and with no copy protection. The authentic site depends on the books it distributes to be freely shared as much as possible. For mainstream authors to distribute their work on the authentic site, they would have to make their work freely available to download. As the number of mainstream authors making their work available on the authentic site increases, network effects would draw more users towards the authentic site, at first drawn by the idea of free books, but by subtly reminding our users that “There is no such thing as a free lunch” These free downloaders can be turned into paying users. This shift will be quite difficult, but it has already been done for other media, notably music and movies. In both of these instances the media is paid for pre download however, with perhaps a sample of the content being given before the user is asked to pay. What the authentic site will offer its users is the complete text before purchase. This feature is expected to draw many to the authentic site. There are numerous sites on the network that offer their users completely free texts. These inauthentic sites will also be able to offer any books that were originally uploaded to the authentic site. Keeping people connected to the authentic site is going to be heavily dependent on an active and ongoing marketing campaign. Authentic Marketing In its simplest form, marketing brings to our attention goods and services that are beneficial to us. In relating the concept of the authentic store to new and current users, we must focus on a few simple ideas that can be repeated constantly from various sources without the receiver of the ideas getting tired of hearing them. 1. The authentic store is an entirely new way of shopping There are no prices in the authentic store, this alone will draw many people to the storefront. Every shopper will be presented with a unique storefront, based on prior text selections. This storefront can be copied and sent to anyone the shopper chooses, new shoppers brought to the store will be shown their referrers storefront and then immediately start configuring their own personal storefront with their first text selection. It is imperative that this storefront remain always uncluttered. (Mockup needed) 2. The authentic store places the power of “text selection” in your hands. Text selection is a term to describe the process where the user’s monetary contributions will slide the site’s focus towards specific genre’s of texts, the genre’s which are most popular. These focused areas of the site will also be determined by ratings of books, including download numbers. But with a very heavy emphasis on which books generate the most discussions.) 3. Read What You Need, Pay What You Can. This is a repurposing of Marx and will at first be seen with derision and perhaps vehemence. It will have to be explained at length. Indeed this idea is at the core of the authentic site’s mission. To enable access to all texts, regardless of the reader’s economic possibilities. It is believed that with proper explanations, the vast majority of the reading public will come to understand that it is in their best interests to patronize the authentic site, contributing monetarily and contributing by participating in discussions on the authentic site, in order for others whose economic situation in the past has not allowed them to participate in the literacy movement, to now participate on an equal ground. 4. The Novel Economy The authentic store will offer a much higher royalty rate than the inauthentic store. We can assume that the authentic store will offer a near 100% royalty rate, excepting for administrative costs of the store. The inauthentic store might offer royalty payments as well, both stores might rely on advertising for revenue, but for the inauthentic store, this will be the sole source of their revenue. We would expect that advertising plus user purchases would enable higher royalty payments through the authentic store. The Social Reading Experience The social aspect of reading comes before and after the act of reading itself. The authentic site will fill this space with extremely relevant book recommendations, not given by an algorithm but by word of mouth marketing from friends. And after reading, the authentic site will provide a space for readers to discuss the book, where the book’s placement on the authentic site will be made more or less prominent based on this discussion. In the early stages of the authentic site, there will be few books listed. The authentic site is not intended to be a catalog of every book ever written, it is intended to be a highly curated subset of every book, tailored to each individual reader. Allowing the reader to interact with and modify the contents of the authentic site will instill a sense of power in the reader and give them a greater sense of attachment to the authentic site.

05-07-2011, 12:38 PM	#712
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,633 Karma: 204624552 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Never gonna happen. Looks like you spent some time on it--and it's a most impressive post-- but, ultimately, never gonna happen. I certainly wish I could pay for gasoline only after I determined that it combusted adequately in my engine, though.

05-08-2011, 07:43 PM	#719
Giggleton Banned Posts: 1,687 Karma: 4368191 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Oregon Device: Kindle3	It is far far easier to not drive.