Page:The digital public domain.pdf/226

Rh While some years ago legitimate commercial media offers were absent from the Internet, and media content was shared via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, companies today appear to have figured out new business models taking advantage of the “long tail”, user-created content and micro-advertising. Apparently this “new deal” is that consumers (users) generate content and the commercial companies use these data for their web services. Consumers can use these services either for free together with advertising content or without ads and with additional features when paying a subscription fee. As the “freemium” model usually compensates neither the user’s nor the artist’s works, we have clear evidence that an interoperable platform for the management of copyright, the rights-clearing and the micropayment of services is still missing.

Network operators, CMS and providers of Web2.0 services appear to be quite happy with the status quo, which preserves their monopolies. Therefore they maintain technical and legal obstacles, for example, by operating proprietary subscriber management/billing systems or granting access to their services through end-user license agreements (EULAs), which are a mystery to the average consumer. The interesting thing is that in P2P time (Napster and before), there was still some money flowing back to the creators. With Web2.0, there is none. Service providers control the business. Essentially they do not intend to prop up creators by providing them with the means to benefit from their creations, they simply subscribe to the idea that there is “money to make” from those who create. We can ask ourselves why the demand for rights clearing and micropayment has decreased in the past. If the only viable business models on the Internet are flat rates for services and advertising for content, it is clear that users/ operators neither require micropayment nor rights compensation.

Meanwhile bis service providers contract artists or labels directly, or creators simply publish content on their own websites. Theoretically, end-users who want to access this content could be charged directly through the publishers’ web services. Still, no generic solution for the rights clearing and payment of content is on the horizon, which is cross platform and cross vendor compatible. After all, from the perspective of creators and end-users the best solution would be a decentralised system where individual peers (creators and end-users) can register content and negotiate with each other the usage terms and conditions of content.

With content registration services, converging networks and next-generation P2P environments in place, there will be a new market