Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Online Clearinghouse for Digital Content?

Posted by Cliff on from the like-eBay-just-better dept.

g8orade asks: "I belong to Photo.net, a community photography site that promotes exchange among 'serious-minded' (sometimes) photographers. A key facet is that members review and rank others' photos and can then search for the best, worst, most viewed, by topic, etc. There are plenty of other sites like this, Slashdot itself relies on users' contributions for its content. Is anyone a member of a community, database driven site like this that -also- acts as a catalog, allowing members to sell their digital content at prices set by them or the site, paid up front--not after the fact like shareware, with a cut of the transaction going to the site's hosters?"

"Compared to eBay, here are some key differences:

  • It's your own content, or it must be content for which you own the copyright.
  • The rankings apply to the content, not the reseller's karma.
  • There's no limit on the product; it's digital.
  • It might be fixed price per copy, not an auction."

11 comments

  1. Ebay?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ebay??

  2. Free market by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If there is no limit on the product, the price is 0. Problem solved.

    1. Re:Free market by g8orade · · Score: 2

      Perhaps I should say very low costs of production and distribution versus a material good like you find on ebay. However, the question is about production and distribution (artificially/legally) restricted to the owner of the digital work so s/he can make money. And I do mean for all types of digital content, not just photos.

      This would be for individuals who want to get paid up front or on some standard terms for their product, not voluntarily like on shareware sites.
      They don't want to go with a traditional media distribution channel.

      Without DRM, is it possible for a net service to replace the middleman, the big media corporations so many readers on /. love to hate?

      I'm guessing from the numbers of posts that no one knows yet how to solve this?

      Everyone with a computer, an internet server, an idea, and some initiative has the means of production and distribution at hand, just not the way to enforce restricted access to the product.

      Maybe they need patrons who make their money from physical goods that aren't so easily reproducible.

    2. Re:Free market by Wiwi+Jumbo · · Score: 1

      Well if you're referring to selling digital-only works of art, you're probably not on the right sort of site...

      Most here feel that code is just as much of a art as photography or anything else and specifially because it's digital (i.e. no real costs to perfect reproduction) strive to keep others from charging for it. (I.E. GPL, etc...)

      Just a thought....

      --
      Wiwi
      "I trust in my abilities,
      but I want more then they offer"
    3. Re:Free market by g8orade · · Score: 2

      Digital photography is just an example because that's what I'm into.

      Pick ANY DIGITAL CREATION--certainly good coding is an art--and certainly I enjoy the fruits of the GPL. But the persons who code under it do get paid or have sustenance one way or another, if not from it directly. Linus and RMS included. Some organization that charges somebody money for something pays for them and for us to live.

      So the question is, if you don't have a job at another place that pays your rent, and you *want* to make money purely from your creation, and you distribute/sell it only digitally, can you do it using the net exclusively as your middleman and cashier, getting paid up front and not later, instead of a "traditional" distribution method?

      ("the net" could be a website where others upload their "competing products" and can vote your product up or down based on criteria)

      And back to the original post: is anyone doing it and if so what are the examples?

      Download.com would be one if it also was the cashier and you had to pay up front.

      I'm not into porn so I couldn't tell you what it's doing, though I hear that's always the cutting edge industry.

      No examples so far...

    4. Re:Free market by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think porn is still primarily profiting from the subscription model. Not appropriate in your case. I think the nature of porn will obviate the necessity of their coming up with a scheme to suit the need you describe, so I think you're on your own.

  3. DAPrints by Wiwi+Jumbo · · Score: 2, Informative

    I "dabble" with my little digital camera at DeviantArt.com (http://wiwijumbo.deviantart.com) but they have also started a new service DAPrints (http://www.daprints.com) which allows you to sell your artwork (not just photos), anything from, if I remember correctly, a poster to a postcard.

    Not that I'd bother with that with *my* shots. :)

    --
    Wiwi
    "I trust in my abilities,
    but I want more then they offer"
    1. Re:DAPrints by Wiwi+Jumbo · · Score: 1

      Um... is anyone able to get the photos from Photo.net? Everything pops up quickly BUT the actual photos. :)

      DA may be mostly people goofing off (such as myself) as compared to Photo.net, but at least I can see them. :-)

      --
      Wiwi
      "I trust in my abilities,
      but I want more then they offer"
  4. Photo.net picture server by ka9dgx · · Score: 2
    Their network seems to have issues with photos from time to time. I used to think it was a browser bug on my end, but now I know better.


    I've posted some photos from time to time, and have gotten very useful feedback.


    --Mike--

    1. Re:Photo.net picture server by Wiwi+Jumbo · · Score: 1

      Actually, you might not be so far off with the broswer bug... after my first visit to Photo.net I couldn't get images from *any* site, including the corporate intranet.... shut down IE completely and start it up again and I can even get the pic's from Photo.net....

      That's never happened to me before...

      I wonder if Photo.net does anything... *different*... :)

      P.S. You have a MUCH nicer camera then me. :-D

      --
      Wiwi
      "I trust in my abilities,
      but I want more then they offer"
  5. Possible site by jayrtfm · · Score: 1

    http://www.upshotstock.com/Default.htm
    this may be what you are looking for.

    I just found this by going to http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Arts_and_ Entertainment/Photography/Stock/

    Almost every agency only deals with collections (100+ images) from photographers, since dealing with tens of images from hundreds of photogs would be a nightmare of maintaining a consistant quality. If there is a problem with the image, the website would be blamed, not the photog who messed up.

    About 4 years or so ago I worked on a system for a major NYC lab. It was capable of quickly making a skinable site for any photographer who wanted to sell their (royalty free) images online.

    The biggest problem was not DRM, but simply that the larger size previews were perfect for webuse. We ended up using a embossed watermark on the preview image.

    For the collections, we usually did a 60 meg scan, archived as a tiff onto a nearline DLT robot. For web distribution the dpi was cut in half, flashpix with jpeg, so the dialup users only had to deal with 4 meg files.

    If I were to do it today the originals would be saved in a wavelet (mr. sid, lurawave, jpeg2K etc) at a high quality setting, stored online. It would then be pretty simple to give the user any size/crop file they wanted.

    Thanks for the question, since I hadn't looked at what's out there for a few years