IMHO, the problem with Gnutella is that it is designed as a copyright violation tool. This means that
there is no cache of who have what, so as soon as you disconnect, nobody remember anything
about you. And the downloads are true peer-to-peer. There should be a cache somewhere in
between, but as most stuff copied is copyrighted it would be a legal nightmare.
Huh? Guntella isn't designed to be a Copyright infringement tool any more than e-mail, web servers, Xerox machines, or cassette recorders are. Remember, not everything is Copyrighted and not every copy of Copyrighted material is an infringement. There is such a thing as Fair Use and many Copyright holders explicity give permission to distribute their works while retaining the Copyright. Metallica, Pearl Jam, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, and the Grateful Dead, for instance, allow people to trade recordings of their live concerts while retaining the Copyright.
Yes, and Stephenson got many of his ideas from discussions on the Cypherpunks list where most of the Mojo Nation developers were participants before Snow Crash came out.
Mojo Nation currently only addresses the trading of commodity resources like disk, bandwidth, and CPU, and does not concern itself with the possibility that one block might have more value to certain individuals than others. The price a block server charges for a block is independent of what the block contains since the block server doesn't know what's in it (nor does it want to know, nor does it want to try to find out since that would be expensive if possible at all). A block server charges the same price for every block.
Markets for valuable information (i.e. timely information) where some information is worth more than others is something that we expect to be built on top of Mojo Nation.
No, it's on topic. The article in question is talking about how Gnutella is already struggling to keep up with demand and things might get really ugly if the rats all flee to it when the Napster ship sinks. The article also talks a little bit about the alternatives to Gnutella and specifically mentions Mojo Nation by name. However, the article doesn't talk about how Mojo Nation attempts to solve some of the problems Gnutella is facing, so I am providing that information here.
Spam would be posting about Mojo Nation to threads that have absolutely nothing to do with P2P filesharing, for instance.
Forwarding search requests through every host is really helping drag down Gnutella, but it has an upside. The Fury client, for instance, lets you watch the search requests fly by as they are routed through your box. It is very interesting (for a little while at least) to see what goes by. Here is what most people are looking for on Gnutella (not a scientific survey):
Porn - teens and Jenna Jameson, an any mpegs, movs, vobs, divxs, avis, etc...
Music - metallica (just out of spite), Britney, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys
The article mentions Mojo Nationin passing at the end of the article but doesn't discuss the things that Mojo Nation does that differentiate it from other p2p filesharing protocols and how it solves some of Gnutella's problem.
Mojo Nation is a p2p file sharing protocol that has a built-in digital cash system. It prevents the "Tragedy of the Commons" problem by effectively creating a barter system for bandwidth, disk space, and CPU. In order to search, upload, download, or otherwise consume any resources from the remote host you must compensate them with the internal currency, known as Mojo. The Mojo represents the resources you are consuming from the counterparty. This way nobody can consume more resources than they are contributing to the system. Each person who joins helps to make it stronger. Note that contributing resources doesn't mean uploading files. You must pay Mojo to upload since you are consuming other servers disk, bandwidth, and CPU by uploading blocks to them and asking the servers to hold them.
The best way to get Mojo, so you can get the files you are interested in, is to provide your own resources (bandwidth, disk, CPU) to the network by using the Mojo Nation Broker (our name for the client software) to run a Block Server, Content Tracker, or Relay server.
A Block Server holds the actual data. In Mojo Nation, instead of holding an entire file on a single server, every file is broken up into many redundant blocks which are spread over many block servers throughout the network. You only need half of the available blocks to reassemble the original file. Of course, the Broker does all of the hunting for and reassembling of blocks transparently. In this way Mojo Nation is like a big distributed RAID drive which makes it resistant to servers disappearing. It also spreads the load out over many hosts, so when you download you are not impacting any single host or network connection severely (expect perhaps your own). It also means that hosts with slow net connections can hold data since each block is pretty small. Your Broker can download some blocks from slower servers in parallel with more blocks from faster servers. The Broker keeps track of performance statistics for each host so it can make intelligent choices about where to purchase blocks from.
Content Trackers are like the search engines in Mojo Nation. Instead of routing all searches through the entire network (which is what is bringing Gnutella down). Mojo Nation has centralized content trackers, but anyone can run one. The content trackers store rich XML metadata describing the files so you can easily search on different fields. The metadata also holds the instructions for your Broker to find and reassemble the blocks that comprise the file. So if you run a Block Server but not a content tracker you cannot know what data you are holding.
Relay Servers are for people behind firewalls. Mojo Nation is an asynchronous protocol. Relay Servers are used so you can send a request to someone behind a firewall. The Relay server holds messages for the clients to pickup, in exchange for some Mojo of course. Relay Servers will also be used for Digital Mix untraceability, much like the old Cypherpunk remailers.
In any event, it is extremely cool and is definitely worth checking out
The clipboard is destroyed everytime you make a selection. You cannot cut/copy something, then select something else and paste to replace it. It forces you to clear out the space you want to paste into first, then copy, then go back and paste. If you want to go through a bunch of fields and replace things with whatever is on your pasteboard you are pretty much SOL (it is very difficult). Also, almost none of the apps available for X have cut/copy/paste in their edit menu. The only app I use that has real cut and paste is Navigator (which is crap in most other respects).
Even Windoze gets it right. There's no reason why X apps can't do it the right way, after all, the Mac has been out for 16 years now. This is just another example of why Linux isn't taking over the desktop anytime soon.
Yes, you are right. GNOME and KDE are a total joke compared to Mac OSX. I mean, GNOME and KDE don't even have real cut and paste. How pathetic is that?
Seriously now, Mac OS-X has true multitasking, it's got the Mach kernel with a full BSD complement. It is totally different from previous versions of MacOS. It's basically NeXTStep v6 with a Mac face.
I haven't looked at the Slashcode, but I would be shocked if it kept passwords in the clear. There's no excuse for not running the passwords through a strong one-way hash w/salt before storing them.
King's "street performer" model is destined for failure. The huge problem with it is that there's no personal
reason for anyone to pay for the story. There's thousands of other people out there, and there's no reason
that anyone would want to pay for the story as long as someone else will. After all, if you can get something
for free, who cares what terms or suggestions are attached to it?
Why are you so sure? People continue to perform in the street to this day. There's no reason for anyone to pay the artist. He's there performing and if you stay for a little while but don't throw any money in his hat (maybe you don't like it), nothing is going to happen to you. But people DO throw money into the hat. People support what they like. After all, everyone knows artists can't continue to produce art without some sort of income.
People perform on the streets because they can make some money and because they want to expose people to their art. In reality, it isn't any additional burden on the street performer that's out there performing if someone watches but doesn't tip (maybe because they don't like it). In the virtual world, it's no additional burden on the artist/publisher if someone somewhere makes a copy, listens/views it and doesn't like it. What is currently missing is the way for people to throw money into the hat if they DO like it. If it's as simple as clicking a button on your MP3 player, for instance, people will tip. The difference, which will make street-performer-like "tipping" protocols successful, is potentially the entire 'Net (eventually most of the world) can view/listen to your work and leave a tip. That can add up to a sizeable income and unlike performing in a real-world venue with practically unlimited seating capacity, it doesn't take any of your personal time beyond the creation of the first copy.
check out Mojo Nation which is an open source distributed filesystem that is attempting to address many of the issues that plague systems like Gnutella.
It uses centrialized content tracking servers, but anyone can run one by just clicking a switch in their client. The content trackers store XML metadata describing the file, so you can search on different fields in different file type categories (easily defineable).
The the files themselves are broken into small redundant pieces and spread over the network. You only need half of the available pieces to reconstruct the original file. This way the system is resistant to servers disappearing. It also means you distribute your load over many hosts and clients with slower connections can still provide block services.
The coolest thing is that Mojo Nation has a built in digital cash called "Mojo" and a microcredit system that effectively turns it into a barter system for disk space, bandwidth, and CPU. Whenever you upload, download, search, or otherwise consume another systems resources, you must compensate them with Mojo. The Mojo represents the disk space, CPU, and bandwidth you are using. You can get Mojo by contributing your resources to the network through the client software (it's automagic). This way nobody can consume more resources than they are contributing to the system. Each person that uses it helps to make it stronger. Of course, being a real digital cash system, nothing stops people from sending Mojo to eachother in e-mail and settling the transaction with something like PayPal.
Mac OS-X's development tools are mostly based on GNU. OS-X uses gcc/egcs, for instance, but uses Jam instead of Make.
Anyway, the deal is that the development tools aren't in the public beta you can buy from the Apple Store. However, registered Apple developers get all of the development tools, which includes a very nice IDE that is brand new and not based at all on the old NeXT ProjectBuilder.
Apple doesn't expect it's regular users to build software; they will install pre-built binaries. That, combined with the enormous size of all of the development tools and documentation, is the reason why the consumer versions of the OS won't have the tools. The development tools will always be something seperate for developers.
Anyone with any experience in the cryptography and security fields knows that such cracking contests are just publicity stunts that do nothing to prove the security of the system in question. The fact is that the amount of work involved for a skilled person to crack the system is usually much more than what is being offered by the contest. Thus, handly anyone actually wins these contests and the company parades around claiming their system is secure. The scary part is eventually some of these systems end up protecting extremely large amounts of very valuable data and then cracking it becomes attractive to real criminale because the rewards are huge.
Mac OS-X has the best API's for developing software. When they built the Mac, the goal was to make it easy for the user, at the expense of the developer. To this day, with Mac Toolbox, Win32, and even Gnome/GTK, putting in all the things that every GUI application must have is very tedious. There are frameworks you can get to make things easier but it's still a bitch. That's why a lot of apps on Gnome, for instance, don't support basic GUI things that users expect; like real cut and paste. It's too hard and the developers usually prefer to concentrate on their apps actual functionality.
When Steve Jobs built the NeXT, the goal was to make the GUI easy for the developers. They were quite successful and many NeXT computer were sold to shops where they needed to build custom software. NeXT's biggest customers were banks and other financial institutions that needed custom trading software. Their single biggest customer was the CIA who needed custom image processing tools. NeXT wasn't successful in the general consumer market and custom apps weren't enough to carry it. All of their customers loved the NeXT computers but they needed Word and Excel and couldn't put two boxes on each desk so the NeXT's had to go. Now Mac is NeXT or NeXT is Mac or something like that, and all of the Microsoft apps will be available.
I predict that we will see some very innovative apps come out for OS-X/Cocoa in the near future. Much in the same way that we saw such innovative apps for the NeXT back in the '90-93 timeframe as Lotus Improv, Diagram, Notebook, SBook, and even the NeXT Mail app (attachments? how quaint...).
Suck doesn't get it. They think the laws of the United States have teeth on the net. They certainly do for visible corporate entities with US offices.
We've all heard the anecdotes. "International borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway." "The 'Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Well, these things are actually true. Suck doesn't see it.
Napster might be pummeled into submission by the US legal system. Will this have much impact on the trading of copyrighted material by individuals? Hell no! They are switching to peer-to-peer systems. The draconian laws of Prohibition have little effect on the consumption of cannabis in this country. Stiff anti-piracy measures will be even less effective; you will never see ninja cops busting down people's doors at 3am to sieze someone's MP3 server. We've all seen how much success the Federal Courts have had at supressing DeCSS. They are shouting but most people on the net are ignoring them. Ostracism is the ultimate punishment on the 'Net.
The fact is that cryptography enables people to communicate secretly, without even knowing whom they are communicating with (but they are assured they are communicating with the same trustworthy folks they have dealt with in the past). Networks are international. Entities offering services will use "Regualatory Arbitrage," to keep the data flowing to people everywhere. Crypto hides the content, and obscures who is speaking to whom.
The 'Net will create it's own currency. By keeping things on the Net, people will avoid the hassles of credit card paper trails banking regulations when buying services on the Net. This is already happening, check out Mojo Nation which is creating a currency backed in CPU, disk space, and bandwidth.
You can't copyright an algorithm. Only a specific implementation of an algorithm is copyrightable. "Clean Room" derived implementations of the algorithm are not infringing. You can patent an algorithm, in the united states at least, but it's expensive and time consuming, and too late in this case.
Check out Mojo Nation. It's like a distributed RAID drive with a built in barter system. Resources such as CPU/disk/bandwidth are exchanged for digital tokens known as "Mojo"... When you search, upload, or download you exchange Mojo for the resources you consume. The broker software resells your cpu/disk/bandwidth to others so you can earn Mojo. This prevents people from leeching without contributing anything to the system.
Files are broken up into small redundant blocks and spread all over so you spread your load all over the net instead of concentrating it on one host (so even people with slow connections can play). It also means some of the hosts can disappear without loosing data. It's way cool.
This is really stupid and I hope MP3.com approves it. There was already an analysis of
the My MP3 protocol put up. There was no way to infringe. Period. MP3 is shelling out
twenty five thousand dollars per CD - payment for what?
You do not understand. Whether or not the protocol was secure or not had nothing to do with it. MP3.com infringed on UMG's copyrights when it copied CDs to onto Mp3.com's disk drives. That's it. You're not allowed to create an online catalog of music without the copyright holders permission. They wilfully violated copyright in order to directly profit from UMG's music. It doesn't matter that they were only going to beam it to people who already bought the CD. They weren't allowed to make the online catalog in the first place.
You are exactly right. The reason why nobody had patented the process behind One Click Ordering isn't because nobody had thought of it before, but because it's obvious to someone practiced in the art of computer programming.
Sort of like the features in Outlook that allow it to be such a great platform for worms. It's not that nobody previously thought of executable e-mail, but that the people who previously thought about it were smart enough to realize that it was a Bad Idea.
Tipping works in the real world, ask buskers (street performers) waiters, valet parkers, and the guys at the curb at the airport (talk about the cushiest job at the place...). There are longstanding cultural traditions of tipping. Sure, a few jerks don't tip but the vast majority do. In the virtual world, if some copy is made somewhere and nobody sends in a tip then it isn't any sweat off the artist/publishers back, so to speak.
The reason why shareware thus far hasn't been wildly successful for generating revenue for the authors (clearly it provides other value, otherwise people wouldn't continue to make share ware or even open source software) is the barrier to payment. It is relatively easy to leave money for a waiter or toss some money in a street performers hat but it is much more difficult to write a check and put it in an envelope and mail it, or call a number and read off a credit card. When tipping becomes as simple as clicking a button on your MP3 player while it's playing a song that you like, tipping will become a viable revenue model for artists and other information publishers on the 'Net.
PayPal doesn't do micropayments. Yes, PayPal provides a convenient peer-to-peer settlement via credit cards but it cannot handle micropayments.
Micropayments involve incredibly small amounts of value. How much does a single HTTP request for 20K of data cost? We're talking about thousandths to millionths of a cent here. The smallest transaction you can make with PayPal is one cent.
As others have mentioned, you can't use PayPal outside of the US...
Mojo Nation is trying to create a mircopayment "barter system" backed in disk space, CPU, and bandwidth. It's bootstrapping the process with a distributed filesystem. You exchange your system resources for "Mojo" which you can exchange with other people consuming their resources (i.e. for downloading data from them). A single Mojo represents an incredibly small amount of value. In the long term we hope that Mojo will float on it's own and people will buy and sell it (possibly by using PayPal for settlement). We also hope people will build other services and charge Mojo.
What is the legal ground for preventing this? Are they expecting to put a fair-use
agreement on the back of every ticket? What is Australian law on freedom of the press?
Uh, have you looked at the back of a ticket recently? Ticketbastard ticket stock, for instance, has the following statement printed on the back (among other things):
Holder agrees by use of this ticket, not to transmit or aid in transmitting any description, account, picture, or reproduction of th egame, performance, exhibition, or event ("event) to which this ticket is issued.
Now, I cannot comment on Austrailian contract law, but here in the 'states the courts have ruled that the fine print on the back of a ticket is a valid contract. If you don't agree to the conditions on the ticket then you are entitled to a refund.
Slashdot Mirror
Burris
Mojo Nation currently only addresses the trading of commodity resources like disk, bandwidth, and CPU, and does not concern itself with the possibility that one block might have more value to certain individuals than others. The price a block server charges for a block is independent of what the block contains since the block server doesn't know what's in it (nor does it want to know, nor does it want to try to find out since that would be expensive if possible at all). A block server charges the same price for every block.
Markets for valuable information (i.e. timely information) where some information is worth more than others is something that we expect to be built on top of Mojo Nation.
Burris
Spam would be posting about Mojo Nation to threads that have absolutely nothing to do with P2P filesharing, for instance.
Burris
Forwarding search requests through every host is really helping drag down Gnutella, but it has an upside. The Fury client, for instance, lets you watch the search requests fly by as they are routed through your box. It is very interesting (for a little while at least) to see what goes by. Here is what most people are looking for on Gnutella (not a scientific survey):
Porn - teens and Jenna Jameson, an any mpegs, movs, vobs, divxs, avis, etc...
Music - metallica (just out of spite), Britney, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys
Warez - Photoshop.
Burris
Mojo Nation is a p2p file sharing protocol that has a built-in digital cash system. It prevents the "Tragedy of the Commons" problem by effectively creating a barter system for bandwidth, disk space, and CPU. In order to search, upload, download, or otherwise consume any resources from the remote host you must compensate them with the internal currency, known as Mojo. The Mojo represents the resources you are consuming from the counterparty. This way nobody can consume more resources than they are contributing to the system. Each person who joins helps to make it stronger. Note that contributing resources doesn't mean uploading files. You must pay Mojo to upload since you are consuming other servers disk, bandwidth, and CPU by uploading blocks to them and asking the servers to hold them.
The best way to get Mojo, so you can get the files you are interested in, is to provide your own resources (bandwidth, disk, CPU) to the network by using the Mojo Nation Broker (our name for the client software) to run a Block Server, Content Tracker, or Relay server.
A Block Server holds the actual data. In Mojo Nation, instead of holding an entire file on a single server, every file is broken up into many redundant blocks which are spread over many block servers throughout the network. You only need half of the available blocks to reassemble the original file. Of course, the Broker does all of the hunting for and reassembling of blocks transparently. In this way Mojo Nation is like a big distributed RAID drive which makes it resistant to servers disappearing. It also spreads the load out over many hosts, so when you download you are not impacting any single host or network connection severely (expect perhaps your own). It also means that hosts with slow net connections can hold data since each block is pretty small. Your Broker can download some blocks from slower servers in parallel with more blocks from faster servers. The Broker keeps track of performance statistics for each host so it can make intelligent choices about where to purchase blocks from.
Content Trackers are like the search engines in Mojo Nation. Instead of routing all searches through the entire network (which is what is bringing Gnutella down). Mojo Nation has centralized content trackers, but anyone can run one. The content trackers store rich XML metadata describing the files so you can easily search on different fields. The metadata also holds the instructions for your Broker to find and reassemble the blocks that comprise the file. So if you run a Block Server but not a content tracker you cannot know what data you are holding.
Relay Servers are for people behind firewalls. Mojo Nation is an asynchronous protocol. Relay Servers are used so you can send a request to someone behind a firewall. The Relay server holds messages for the clients to pickup, in exchange for some Mojo of course. Relay Servers will also be used for Digital Mix untraceability, much like the old Cypherpunk remailers.
In any event, it is extremely cool and is definitely worth checking out
Burris
Even Windoze gets it right. There's no reason why X apps can't do it the right way, after all, the Mac has been out for 16 years now. This is just another example of why Linux isn't taking over the desktop anytime soon.
Burris
Seriously now, Mac OS-X has true multitasking, it's got the Mach kernel with a full BSD complement. It is totally different from previous versions of MacOS. It's basically NeXTStep v6 with a Mac face.
Burris
Burris
People perform on the streets because they can make some money and because they want to expose people to their art. In reality, it isn't any additional burden on the street performer that's out there performing if someone watches but doesn't tip (maybe because they don't like it). In the virtual world, it's no additional burden on the artist/publisher if someone somewhere makes a copy, listens/views it and doesn't like it. What is currently missing is the way for people to throw money into the hat if they DO like it. If it's as simple as clicking a button on your MP3 player, for instance, people will tip. The difference, which will make street-performer-like "tipping" protocols successful, is potentially the entire 'Net (eventually most of the world) can view/listen to your work and leave a tip. That can add up to a sizeable income and unlike performing in a real-world venue with practically unlimited seating capacity, it doesn't take any of your personal time beyond the creation of the first copy.
Burris
It uses centrialized content tracking servers, but anyone can run one by just clicking a switch in their client. The content trackers store XML metadata describing the file, so you can search on different fields in different file type categories (easily defineable).
The the files themselves are broken into small redundant pieces and spread over the network. You only need half of the available pieces to reconstruct the original file. This way the system is resistant to servers disappearing. It also means you distribute your load over many hosts and clients with slower connections can still provide block services.
The coolest thing is that Mojo Nation has a built in digital cash called "Mojo" and a microcredit system that effectively turns it into a barter system for disk space, bandwidth, and CPU. Whenever you upload, download, search, or otherwise consume another systems resources, you must compensate them with Mojo. The Mojo represents the disk space, CPU, and bandwidth you are using. You can get Mojo by contributing your resources to the network through the client software (it's automagic). This way nobody can consume more resources than they are contributing to the system. Each person that uses it helps to make it stronger. Of course, being a real digital cash system, nothing stops people from sending Mojo to eachother in e-mail and settling the transaction with something like PayPal.
It's really cool, check it out.
Burris
Anyway, the deal is that the development tools aren't in the public beta you can buy from the Apple Store. However, registered Apple developers get all of the development tools, which includes a very nice IDE that is brand new and not based at all on the old NeXT ProjectBuilder.
Apple doesn't expect it's regular users to build software; they will install pre-built binaries. That, combined with the enormous size of all of the development tools and documentation, is the reason why the consumer versions of the OS won't have the tools. The development tools will always be something seperate for developers.
Burris
See Applied Cryptography for more discussion.
Burris
When Steve Jobs built the NeXT, the goal was to make the GUI easy for the developers. They were quite successful and many NeXT computer were sold to shops where they needed to build custom software. NeXT's biggest customers were banks and other financial institutions that needed custom trading software. Their single biggest customer was the CIA who needed custom image processing tools. NeXT wasn't successful in the general consumer market and custom apps weren't enough to carry it. All of their customers loved the NeXT computers but they needed Word and Excel and couldn't put two boxes on each desk so the NeXT's had to go. Now Mac is NeXT or NeXT is Mac or something like that, and all of the Microsoft apps will be available.
I predict that we will see some very innovative apps come out for OS-X/Cocoa in the near future. Much in the same way that we saw such innovative apps for the NeXT back in the '90-93 timeframe as Lotus Improv, Diagram, Notebook, SBook, and even the NeXT Mail app (attachments? how quaint...).
Burris
We've all heard the anecdotes. "International borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway." "The 'Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Well, these things are actually true. Suck doesn't see it.
Napster might be pummeled into submission by the US legal system. Will this have much impact on the trading of copyrighted material by individuals? Hell no! They are switching to peer-to-peer systems. The draconian laws of Prohibition have little effect on the consumption of cannabis in this country. Stiff anti-piracy measures will be even less effective; you will never see ninja cops busting down people's doors at 3am to sieze someone's MP3 server. We've all seen how much success the Federal Courts have had at supressing DeCSS. They are shouting but most people on the net are ignoring them. Ostracism is the ultimate punishment on the 'Net.
The fact is that cryptography enables people to communicate secretly, without even knowing whom they are communicating with (but they are assured they are communicating with the same trustworthy folks they have dealt with in the past). Networks are international. Entities offering services will use "Regualatory Arbitrage," to keep the data flowing to people everywhere. Crypto hides the content, and obscures who is speaking to whom.
The 'Net will create it's own currency. By keeping things on the Net, people will avoid the hassles of credit card paper trails banking regulations when buying services on the Net. This is already happening, check out Mojo Nation which is creating a currency backed in CPU, disk space, and bandwidth.
Burris
Burris
Files are broken up into small redundant blocks and spread all over so you spread your load all over the net instead of concentrating it on one host (so even people with slow connections can play). It also means some of the hosts can disappear without loosing data. It's way cool.
Burris
Burris
Sort of like the features in Outlook that allow it to be such a great platform for worms. It's not that nobody previously thought of executable e-mail, but that the people who previously thought about it were smart enough to realize that it was a Bad Idea.
Burris
The reason why shareware thus far hasn't been wildly successful for generating revenue for the authors (clearly it provides other value, otherwise people wouldn't continue to make share ware or even open source software) is the barrier to payment. It is relatively easy to leave money for a waiter or toss some money in a street performers hat but it is much more difficult to write a check and put it in an envelope and mail it, or call a number and read off a credit card. When tipping becomes as simple as clicking a button on your MP3 player while it's playing a song that you like, tipping will become a viable revenue model for artists and other information publishers on the 'Net.
Burris
Micropayments involve incredibly small amounts of value. How much does a single HTTP request for 20K of data cost? We're talking about thousandths to millionths of a cent here. The smallest transaction you can make with PayPal is one cent.
As others have mentioned, you can't use PayPal outside of the US...
Mojo Nation is trying to create a mircopayment "barter system" backed in disk space, CPU, and bandwidth. It's bootstrapping the process with a distributed filesystem. You exchange your system resources for "Mojo" which you can exchange with other people consuming their resources (i.e. for downloading data from them). A single Mojo represents an incredibly small amount of value. In the long term we hope that Mojo will float on it's own and people will buy and sell it (possibly by using PayPal for settlement). We also hope people will build other services and charge Mojo.
Check it out, it's really cool, Mojo Nation.
Burris
"Grant 'em all and let the courts sort 'em out." - USPTO Motto
Burris
When links are outlawed, only outlaws will have links.
Burris