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Topic: Micropayment

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	Shirky: Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content
		The people pushing micropayments believe that the dollar cost of goods is the thing most responsible for deflecting readers from buying content, and that a reduction in price to micropayment levels will allow creators to begin charging for their work without deflecting readers.
		Like the salami slicing exploit in computer crime, micropayment believers imagine that such tiny amounts of money can be extracted from the user that they will not notice, while the overall volume will cause these payments to add up to something significant for the recipient.
		People want to believe in things like micropayments because without a magic bullet to believe in, they would be left with the uncomfortable conclusion that what seems to be happening -- free content is growing in both amount and quality -- is what's actually happening.
	www.shirky.com /writings/fame_vs_fortune.html (2022 words)

	Micropayment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Micropayments are means for transferring money, in situations where collecting money with the usual payment systems is impractical, or very expensive, in terms of the amount of money being collected.
		Proponents of the micropayment business model believe that micropayments will solve the free rider problem for sites that are attempting to depend solely on advertising, and, that such a system is a refinement for sites that have resorted to charging subscription fees.
		The argument by artists in favour of micropayments is firstly that such schemes would free them from sponsorship and advertising, which allows more independence for their art; and secondly that the possibility of earning a living through their work would allow them to produce more and higher quality work.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Micropayment (1313 words)

	OpenP2P.com -- The Case Against Micropayments
		Micropayments are an idea with a long history and a disputed definition - as the W3C micropayment working group puts it, "...
		Micropayment systems have not failed because of poor implementation; they have failed because they are a bad idea.
		Micropayments thus create in the mind of the user both anxiety and confusion, characteristics that users have not heretofore been known to actively seek out.
	www.openp2p.com /pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html (1223 words)

	USATODAY.com - Tiny Internet sales hyped again, but skeptics abound (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Today's micropayment advocates say earlier attempts failed not just because they were cumbersome and lacked sufficient government and financial industry support.
		Micropayment carriers are using different technologies to collect, transfer and authenticate payments.
		The trick for micropayment companies is to convince Web surfers that there's so much good online content available for nickels and dimes that it's worthwhile to bother stocking a prepaid account with a few bucks.
	www.usatoday.com /tech/news/2003-12-01-micropay_x.htm (1118 words)

	The Digital Imprimatur
		Micropayment transactions can be performed explicitly by logging on to the exchange's site, but will usually be initiated by direct connection to the exchange's server when the user makes an online purchase.
		The first broadly successful micropayment exchange is likely to be technology driven, but as micropayments become a mass market and begin to encroach on other payment facilities, pioneers in the market are likely to be acquired by major players in the financial services industry.
		Certified micropayment exchanges will, of course, be required to comply with "know your customer" and disclosure regulations, adhere to international conventions against money laundering, terrorism, and drug trafficking, and disclose transactions to the fiscal authorities of the jurisdiction of the buyer and seller for purposes of tax assessment.
	www.fourmilab.ch /documents/digital-imprimatur (18487 words)

	USATODAY.com - Credit cards enter the micropayment game (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		These so-called "micropayments" are gaining currency on the Internet as a way to perform small-ticket transactions such as downloading a song or accessing other online content.
		But most micropayment systems require customers to establish prepaid accounts, to get around the hassle and transactional costs of entering card information for each purchase.
		Now, however, one player in the micropayments market, Peppercoin, has come up with a system that also facilitates the more familiar way of buying things — by credit or debit card at the time of service.
	www.usatoday.com /tech/news/2004-06-28-micropay_x.htm (485 words)

	Anticipating Micropayment Growth (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Indeed, mobile micropayments grew from roughly $2 billion to $5 billion between 2003 and 2004 while micropayment purchases of digital content over online channels grew at a rate of over 250 percent for the same time period.
		New rates and fees focused on generating volumes in the micropayment and small dollar space come on the heals of contactless cards and POS technology, but are likely to increase adoption of card payments for sub-five dollar purchases.
		Micropayments are defined as electronic payments for which traditional methods of processing may be too costly to be efficient.
	www.emediawire.com /releases/2005/11/emw308945.htm (668 words)

	Unstrung - Vodafone Launches Micropayment Billing - Wireless Networking News Analysis
		Vodafone Group PLC launched its micropayments billing system on Thursday, a technology that allows an operator to charge users small amounts for wireless data downloads on their monthly bills and share that revenue with the content providers.
		Micropayments are generally agreed to be the way that developers can make some cold, hard cash from their applications and content -- which might actually save the ‘wireless Web’ from dying on its feet.
		Indeed, micropayment billing is something that carriers could be working on now, so as to have it in place before they start talking up third-generation services like audio or video downloads.
	www.unstrung.com /document.asp?doc_id=12813 (1168 words)

	Payso - Pay Per View Micropayment Processing Solutions
		Micropayments are the digital equivalent of pocket change.
		With micropayments they are able to purchase the content they are interested in on your website.
		There is nothing stopping you from using micropayments and a monthly membership model together to maximize profits if it fits your business goals.
	www.payso.com (333 words)

	Micropayments :: Zwol.org
		The micropayment point here is that people are used to paying to use their phones.
		Seeing other micropayment upstarts being mentioned here is comforting, because I was beginning to think it would be a strictly paypal and amazon world.
		The main point is that for a micropayment system to succeed, that is for if to be adopted, it can't be owned or controlled by any one entity.
	www.zwol.org /forum/viewtopic.php?t=13 (3158 words)

	Common Markup for micropayment per-fee-links: a W3C Public Working Draft
		Many of the existing micropayment systems do follow this approach, however each of them is using its own proprietary method of creating a per-fee-link and encoding the vital information in the per-fee-link.
		Micropayments involve a buyer/customer C, a vendor/merchant M, and potentially one or more additional parties that keep accounts (usually called brokers [in Millicent], billing servers [in IBM MicroPayments], intermediaries [in France Telecom Micropayments], etc.).
		Micropayment information are statements that are properly expressed according to the Resource Description Framework ([RDF]).
	www.w3.org /TR/Micropayment-Markup (7047 words)

	Micropayments Overview
		The Micropayment initiative specifies how to provide in a Web page all the information necessary to initialize a micropayment and transfer this information to the wallet for processing.
		One important aspect of "micropayments" is that the definition varies with the audience.
		Micropayments have to be suitable for the sale of non-tangible goods over the Internet.
	www.w3.org /ECommerce/Micropayments (1151 words)

	Misunderstanding Micropayments - Scott McCloud
		Thus when Clay Shirky wrote The Case Against Micropayments late that year, his arguments rang true because the implementation of micropayments he described was every bit as ghastly as he claimed.
		Micropayments had come to mean any system by which small denominations could be quickly and easily exchanged over a network by willing sellers and willing buyers.
		Another factor contributing to micropayments’ dismal first round was the simple fact that until very recently, few users were willing to pay for content while they still felt that they were paying with their time.
	www.scottmccloud.com /home/essays/2003-09-micros/micros.html (3564 words)

	Halfbakery: micropayment email
		Since someone has to operate the micropayment system, and will need to skim a fraction to cover operating costs and make some profit, it would be good for the system to support multiple competing micropayment systems.
		I'm sure that there are lots of other details that need to be worked out, but a low-overhead micropayment system is obviously the one vital part that isn't here yet.
		Maybe the ISPs would be the micropayment system operator and the monthly ISP fees would cover the micropayment overhead.
	www.halfbakery.com /idea/micropayment_20email (799 words)

	Wired News: A Micropayment for Your Thoughts
		Micropayment handlers know they're treading over the skeletons of 1990s companies -- the likes of Flooz, Beenz, CyberCash and DigiCash -- that tried and failed to create virtual currencies.
		But if competition pushes prices lower, and more individual artists want to sell tracks at their own websites, micropayment providers say they would be ideal helpers because they can track royalties and handle customer service.
		"We're finding that music is just the tip of the iceberg," said Steve Elefant, president of Yaga, which handles micropayments and larger transactions, including the $2.50 payments that Tribune and Time.com charge for articles in their archives.
	www.wired.com /news/ebiz/0,1272,61419,00.html (801 words)

	Guardian Unlimited Technology \| Technology \| Making the web pay (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		A workable micropayment system has historically been the holy grail for internet content providers.
		The idea of being able to charge for content worth only pennies has long appealed, with the theory being that given small enough prices, a smooth enough system and compelling enough content, people will be happy to pay a few pence for a good read, a useful program or a fine tune.
		McCloud, whose book Reinventing Comics went some way to introduce the ideas of paid-for internet distribution to the comic industry, says that the systems may well be here for micropayments to break into the mainstream.
	technology.guardian.co.uk /online/story/0,3605,1013313,00.html (1594 words)

	Define micropayment - a definition from Whatis.com - see also: microcent, pay-per-view
		On the Web, micropayment is a business concept whose goal is to generate revenue by offering pay-per-view Web pages, Web links, or Web services for small amounts of money called "microcents".
		Since it is not practical for individual users to charge small amounts of money (such as a penny or a fraction of a penny) to a major charge card, a different method of payment is needed for sites that wish to go "micro".
		Several methods of micropayment collection are being examined, many of which involve encoding per-fee-
	searchcio.techtarget.com /sDefinition/0,290660,sid19_gci512358,00.html (206 words)

	Micropayment Comparison Table (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Below are two large tables that attempt to offer a comparison between various proposed technologies that would support a micropayment digital economy.
		A links section at the end refers to some other micropayment stuff.
		This table grew out of discussions on the Zwol Reinventing Comics: Commerce forum, where a group of comics creators and fans have been talking about micropayments as a possibly appropriate economic framework for selling digitally delivered sequential art.
	cmug.com /~john_scott/ic/microtable.html (1868 words)

	Making a fortune on the Internet -- one micropayment at a time
		Bitpass and other micropayment companies believe the success of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, which has sold more than 100 million songs for 99 cents or less, signals the dawn of a new era in e-commerce.
		TowerGroup, a Massachusetts firm that advises the finance industry, estimates that the global market for Internet and mobile micropayments of $5 or less was slightly more than $2 billion in 2003.
		One micropayment company, Peppercoin, of Waltham, Mass., commissioned a survey released last month showing more than 10 million Americans bought digital content for less than $2 in the past year.
	seattlepi.nwsource.com /business/191174_micropayments17.html (1004 words)

	PayPal's New Micropayment Pricing Will Dominate Market
		PayPal’s move into the micropayment market was a sound business decision, and one that is likely to lead to market domination.
		The move to micropayments was simply a matter of changing PayPal’s pricing model and offering online merchants a rate of five cents plus five percent of the total cost for transactions under $3.
		For example, PayPal’s micropayment fee reduces the merchant fee from 35 cents to 15 cents on a typical $2 transaction — roughly the price of one ring tone or single online greeting card.
	www.gartner.com /DisplayDocument?doc_cd=130938 (599 words)

	micropayment and Stock Trading at TradeStars + Stock Trading (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Nowadays, most individuals who want to trade use online services, which allow micropayment to place their orders over the stock, allowing them to lock in quick profits.
		micropayment is extremely risky and SEC on July 10, 2000.
		Day-Trading Risk Disclosure Statement micropayment (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), no member that is promoting a day- trading strategy, directly or indirectly, shall open an account for or on behalf of a non-institutional customer unless, prior to will generate substantial commissions, even if the per trade cost is low.
	www.tradestars.com /content/micropayment.asp (170 words)

	Meatball Wiki: MicroPayment (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Right now, most webpages that would be priced in the micropayment range either don't exist, are provided free, or have a non-micropayment monthly fee which scares away 99% of the users who would user the service if it were cheap.
		Another chance-based MicroPayment scheme significantly closer to fruition is [PepperCoin] (see also this [article] from the Boston Globe).
		There is an excellent article by Clay Shirky called Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content [3] showing that micropayments are doomed to fail because creators are not publishers -- these days creators have the tools to publish online, and they crave attention more than money.
	www.usemod.com /cgi-bin/mb.pl?MicroPayment (1249 words)

	Transaction Net: Micro payment methods online
		Millicent, a micropayment system implemented by Digital Equipment Corp, now owned by Compaq, went live in June 1999 in Japan, with wallets starting at 1000 yen and payments as small as 5 yen (approximately $0.04 at launch time).
		Clickshare is a micropayment system run by some east coast local publishers.
		Intertrust was working on an encrypted envelope payment method, but they appear to have moved on to general e-commerce security solutions, such as the "Secure Digital Music Initiative" on behalf of the recording industry.
	www.transaction.net /payment/micro.html (684 words)

	Stamps vs Spam - Postage as a method to eliminate Unsolicited Commercial Email
		Shirky concludes that micropayments (as in, payment of tiny amounts of money) are not worthwhile, because these oft neglected transaction cost make them inefficiently expensive as compared to the stated value of the services being bought.
		As far as postage is concerned, this implies that it is a bad idea to attach stamps of too small a value — which would also be a bad idea in that it wouldn't deter spam as much.
		From the little I know, my guess is that their lack of success is mainly due to their not providing payment by human time, thus having high cost and little incremental gain for early adopters.
	fare.tunes.org /articles/stamps_vs_spam.html (8335 words)

	MPP :: Micropayments and Micropayment Services using Credit and Debit Cards, Reverse Billing SMS and more...
		Micropayments provide a revenue stream to websites, and yet don't interfere with the freedom of linking and navigation.
		The same is true on the internet; micropayments are so small that they do not need a user interface.
		The MPP micropayment engine can deliver micropayments ranging from 1 Service Credit to 1000 Service Credits, and macropayments of any amount using the other features in the eWallet.
	www.mppglobal.com /03-online-ecommerce-credit-debit-card-payment-reverse-bill-sms-micropayments/p-eWallet-credit-debit-card-reverse-bill-sms-micropayments.asp (293 words)

	Making the web pay \| Technology \| Guardian Unlimited Technology (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		A workable micropayment system has historically been the holy grail for internet content providers.
		The idea of being able to charge for content worth only pennies has long appealed, with the theory being that given small enough prices, a smooth enough system and compelling enough content, people will be happy to pay a few pence for a good read, a useful program or a fine tune.
		McCloud, whose book Reinventing Comics went some way to introduce the ideas of paid-for internet distribution to the comic industry, says that the systems may well be here for micropayments to break into the mainstream.
	www.guardian.co.uk /online/story/0,3605,1013313,00.html (1603 words)

	Wired News: A Micropayment for Your Thoughts (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		But with a micropayment carrier, you could expect to give up 15 percent.
		With 35 million users, PayPal is the dominant peer-to-peer means of sending money online, especially at the auction site run by its parent company, eBay.
		Members have to put at least $3 in a RedPaper account that gets docked or credited when they buy or sell material on the site.
	www.wired.com /news/ebiz/0,1272,61419-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1 (591 words)

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