Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 07:59:45 -0500 (EST)
From: "JOHN S. O'CONNOR" <joconnor@osf1.gmu.edu>
X-Sender: joconnor@mason2.gmu.edu
To: "BRAD J. COX" <bcox@osf1.gmu.edu>
Subject: AAHESGIT: Non-Copyright User Fee Model (fwd)
Mime-Version: 1.0

Brad,
Thought you'd be pleased to see how your ideas are getting circulated.  
This is a list discussion with over 5000 subscribers. MANY of them 
administrators.
John

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 96 06:31:51 +0100
From: Steve Gilbert <gilbert@clark.net>
To: American Association for Higher Education <aahesgit@list.cren.net>
Subject: AAHESGIT: Non-Copyright User Fee Model

(Approx. 35 lines from Jeremy Roschelle of U. of Cal. 
Berkeley <jeremy@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu> forwarded to 
AAHESGIT with permission by Fred Beshears of U. of Cal. 
Berkeley <phred@violet.berkeley.edu>.

This excerpt from a review of a book by Brad Cox summarizes 
an interesting (new?) way of thinking about the assignment 
and collection of fees for the use of software.  I've long 
believed that the copyright system doesn't really fit the new 
digital environment, and that a new mechanism is needed to 
provide enough revenue for those who develop and distribute 
good software to enable them to keep doing so.  Here's an 
alternative.)

Steve Gilbert ===========================================
================== Flying home from Syracuse U. =========



Subject: Review of Brad Cox's "Superdistribution" Model
Subject: economics & components

Well I picked up a copy of Brad Cox's book on 
"Superdistribution." ... [and] there are some ideas worth 
thinking about, and I wanted to raise them here. Cox's thesis 
is that for components to succeed, we need new economic 
arrangements. The base of his argument is that software is 
bits, not atoms, and therefore it is more appropriate to 
charge for use, not acquisition. His model is BMI or ASCAP, 
which pay royalties to musicians based on statistical 
sampling of how often a song is heard on the radio. He argues 
that music, like software, is easily copied. Thus it is 
appropriate to distribute the copies essentially for free, 
but charge for the performance or use.  The third factor is 
the hassle factor, which says that people don't like to be 
nickled and dimed. Therefore, ASCAP invoices the radio 
station for an aggregate amount quarterly or yearly... a nice 
predictable amount. The usage statistics don't increase the 
price paid, only how the combined proceeds get distributed.

To me, its not impossible to imagine that a school could 
support such a sampling scheme, and pay for its software use 
accordingly. Cox points out that this doesn't necessarily 
imply the school would pay more money. It isn't necessarily 
inconvenient either. The school could write one fixed-amount 
check each year to "Ed Components Consortium" and the usage 
information could be used only to decide how that check gets 
split into royalty payments. In such a case, the money paid 
would more closely reflect use, and Cox thinks this would 
create a healthy competition for actual use, usability, and 
usefulness. He also thinks that continuing, incremental flow 
of money will sustain relationships between schools and 
developers, where as one-shot purchases encourage "drive buy" 
marketing.  The idea is to get the flow of use (from 
developer to school) correlated with the flow of money (from 
school to developer). The bigger framework for his argument 
is that the flow of money is the best tool for organizing a 
community into a coordinated approach to production.

Jeremy Roschelle
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