Street Performer Protocol

maphew writes "Copyright is dead and unenforceable. The Street Performer Protocol is a method (still in the design phase) for getting money to the authors (programs, books, music, whatever) who make their work free. Most Slashdotters will want to skip down to the mechanics section as the first half is rationalization for why something like SPP is necessary, and we all know that already, right? "

Comments

Interesting idea, but...

[trims]

..there are alot of problems. Here are some that I can think of:

• How do I know what to ask for? Currently, the price of an item is primarily determined by demand and production, typical capitalistic methods. The marketplace does an exceedingly good job of maximizing the gain for everyone (granted, software costs are NOT one of these situations). How am I, as an individual, supposed to figure out what a reasonable cost is? If I guess too low, I miss out on (possibly) large sums that I should have made (unfair to me), and if I guess too high, people will not get to see my work (unfair to them) since I won't publish. Price setting is extremely difficult, and perhaps the biggest flaw in the system.
• What happens to the money that people contribute if the "goal" isn't made? I assume that it's refunded; however, think of the logistics and costs associated with this. Think of all the problems that happen every time some group cancels a concert. Multiply this thousandfold. Remember, the "Publisher" entrusted with the finished work is also probably the collector of the money. The "Publisher" will almost certainly pass the cost of insurance against such a cancellation to the author, so you might end up cutting out small authors, since the cost of the "Publisher" may be a large chunk of the possible revenue.
• How is the product evaluated? Does the Publisher vouch for the safe operation/quality of the product? Demoware? Reviews?
• What about support? OK, for books and music, this might be a lesser issue, but what about software? Is it just like GNU stuff nowdays? Or is there some arrangement? And what about liability? Who is responsible if it doesn't work as advertized?

Perhaps the biggest flaw I can see (particularly in the author/music industry) is that no one has any idea of what something is worth. Also, the protocol heavily discriminates against first-time authors, since it depends on reputation as a methods for setting expectations of return. What if I don't want to write 6 books, but have 1 awesome novel?

Overall, it's an interesting idea, but one that has far too many practical flaws for us to ever see it in reality.

-Erik

Defense of the Protocol

[_Quinn]

I'll respond to some of the concerns raised here in order, after a set of general comments.

First, it's important to realize that the Protocol depends on the assumption that copyright law is already broken, and only becomes valid when that point is reaced. Furthermore, it depends on the notion that the current scarcity model for content can no longer be applied. Some of the comments address this contention ("nobody wants to read novels online"), missing the assumption that we've effectively divorced content from its container.

For example, this is already 90% true in music. After a relatively small initial investment, anyone with a decent computer and a decent netlink can burn their own audio CD's at something like $4 a pop. It becomes increasingly apparent that 'piracy' of musical content is astoundlingly widespread and equally impossible to stop. Music distribution is digital until the point it gets on the wires to your speakers, so it's the perfect example. The cost incurred by the end-user (burning the CD) is a concession to the lack of universal networking, not any particular inability to enjoy the music in another form (i.e. your HD, a flashcard, etc). Similarly, the major obstacle to purely digital distribution of novels and texts is two-fold: first, a universal (de-facto) standard (or a pair, like mp3 and CDA) for distribution of content (ASCII text simply doesn't cut it for a serious work), and a cheap home system for manufacturing the container -- nobody's produced a system for manufacturing paperback novels from a home computer systems. (AFAIK.)

So the Protocol depends on the assumption that we've not only developed a low- or no- cost system for distribution of content (the internet) but also a low- or no- cost system for creation of containers. Otherwise, the whole model breaks because people will be willing to pay for copies of the content -- which, in turn, allows copyright law to be enforced, because there's some central point manufacturing those containers. With those points in mind, let's look at the issues raised.

This is ridiculous.

[colmore]

This is as silly as "eCash" and "Micropayments" it will simply never succeed. If this generates any money at all I will forever hold my peice and amke no more web predictions. That is of course a lie.

Why this thing can't work:
1) "Serialization" do we want everything to be serialized like that dumb Stephen King (get well soon!) marketing ploy to sell the green mile? Seeing the X-Files come in segments is one thing. Waiting for months as an album or novel is delivered peacemeal is quite different.

2) Artist Frustration. What If the work doesn't generate any "Street Money?" and the Artists work never shows up. In the very simplistic views of the goals of the different participants a key goal of the artist was left out: expression. Sure the artist has to eat, but if that fails at least he or she can make a statement and have work published. Under this doomed system the artist that wasn't able to get people to pay for the promise of more work has a large body of unpublished work that they cannot release by contract. If we add a provision that says that if after some time the work isn't published then the artist regains rights to publish then the public won't pay, they'll just wait a little while longer (and with the pace of the internet being what it is, that wouldn't be too fast)

3) Who's going to pay? They tried to sell content once. Only porn sells directly. If people wouldn't pay for content that ALLREADY existed then why would anyone pay for essentially vaporware. And if the publisher is having trouble generating money then they could easily reach the financial position of being unable to pay angry "customers" back. Even on a guarauteed site, I don't like giving out my credit card number too often. And paying for vaporware isn't something i'd take any risk on.

4) Servers are getting better and cheaper. The promise of internet content is to REMOVE the middleman from publishing. Any artist able to make money by this obsurd system could surely afford a $20 to $30 per month account at dreamhost or somewhere. As servers and bandwidth get better the expense of streaming content and large file storage and big transfer rates will plummit. Artists won't need a Publisher. All they'd need is a friend or hired highschooler to write some HTML.

5) Online novels, maybe the only thing that could succeed on this payment plan, won't happen. Reading large amounts of text on the screen is painful even for bloodshot veterans and truely great books (I reccomend Catch-22 and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man :^]) are available at you LIBRARY for free. And reading is more fun when you can curl up with some hot chocolate under a quilt and feel the pages in your hands.


What we need, and I forsee coming within the next 5-10 years, is a very secure system of one click payment on the internet (well one click and a password... sure) this way artist sites could have a simple "donate" button where with two typed fields and a button you could give him or her a buck or two. This would be psychologically easier than pulling out the old card and filling in your name rank and number again and again. With a simple way to give small amounts of money people would be more inclined to acts of small charity. However browsers would have to be guaraunteed to allways alert you to a transaction and allways tell the true amount being sent. Maybe even have a sending delay so you could cancel within 48 hours or so.

Well slashdotters what do you think?