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Thursday, August 24, 2000
Everybody is fighting about whether music downloads should be free or whether downloaders should be obligated to pay the source for their music; but nobody seems to be doing anything about it -- until now. Two students from the University of Waterloo in Canada have created a Web site
called Fairtunes with which you can voluntarily pay the musicians who created the music you download. Simply go to Fairtunes after you download the music, tell the company which artists you want to pay and how much, and provide your credit card number. Founder John Cormie tells me that the charge card company takes a small piece of the transaction, but that his company, at this point, doesn't take a cent. All other dollars go to the artist. It seems like a simple way to move into the next revolution of music distribution. And it can work on other items distributed electronically too, such as movies and software. If it works, the creators of the intellectual property get paid; and the market dictates what it is willing to pay (instead of leaving it in the hands of a few monopolistic companies).
Recently Stephen King has been experimenting with a similar concept in which his readers can download a book chapter by chapter, and then pay voluntarily. However, King is holding the hatchet over the head of the downloaders. If three quarters of them don't pay up, he'll stop posting chapters on his makeshift honor system. I appreciate the sentiment, and think that King may be on the right track -- making downloaders responsible if they sample his wares. But I'd hardly call it voluntary, when readers know that they may never see the end of the book if they don't pay up.
GlobalSCAPE, a software company in Texas uses a unique way to get paid for its CuteFTP software, even if the user doesn't pay the appropriate license fee. Upon download, the user is granted a 30-day evaluation license. On the evaluation version, GlobalSCAPE displays banner ads directly onto the software's main window. Each time a banner ad is displayed, the company receives a few cents from an advertiser. So, while the company suggests that users register & pay for their software, they may still make money, even if users neglect to pay. As an added incentive, the banner ads disappear upon paid registration, which is accomplished by submitting charge card information online, receiving a registration number and entering it into the evaluation software that you had originally downloaded.
Have a question for David Radin? Contact him at his Web site
If you have seen other unique solutions, drop by www.insiderradio.com/internetinsider/stepup.html to let me know.
Q: How can I get rid of a message that appears on start up "This will install NetZip 4. Do you wish to continue?"
A: Most applications that launch when you turn on your computer are activated in either the Startup Group or by command from one of the system start-up files (such as autoexec.bat or config.sys).
You can find out which applications are in the Startup Group by clicking on the [Start] button, then [Programs], then [Startup]. To discontinue the automatic running of an application here, simply right click on it and select Delete.
If the application is not in your Startup Group, open your autoexec.bat using notepad. Find the command line that starts the application. Then type REM at the beginning of that line. This will "remark out" the command, rendering it inoperable. Once you resave the autoexec.bat file, the application will no longer automatically start.
To automatically launch an application, create a shortcut for that application in the Startup Group.
David Radin is host of the nationally syndicated radio show Internet Insider, a local version of which is aired on KDKA AM 1020 on Saturdays at noon.
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