Re: ::scr Paying for It

[Simon Batistoni <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 02/05/02 12:17 +0100, Alaric Snell wrote:
> On Thursday 02 May 2002 12:15, you wrote:
> 
> > I'm wondering if there's any real reason, with the numbers of people
> > online now, that this can't work for the web. Let people sign up for
> > an account with you, and let them "lend" their account to other
> > people. Perhaps even let them generate temporary sub-logins on their
> > account.
> 
> I'd do this by making the URLs of all the articles and so on contain large 
> randomish numbers (so they can't be guessed), but to only show the navigation 
> menus if the viewer has a valid logon cookie.
> 
> Then anyone can see the URL, but only registered people can *find* those URLs 
> in the first place.
> 
> > So you say "hey, you'd really like this article on salon. I've given
> > you a sublogin. My username is "muttley", and you can use "hitherto"
> > and the password "excellent". It'll let you in for a couple of days.
> 
> That'd be such a pain to do, and does not account for posting to mailing 
> lists :-)

Hmm, but the point here, from the point of view of some content
providers (and simon's just posted something in opposition to this,
but that's a separate reply) is that they *don't* want someone
effectively (real-world equivalent) buying their magazine and then
making 100 photocopies and handing them out to their friends.

I agree, the system I proposed would be a complete pain to build, and
quite possibly wouldn't even be a joy to use, but it might be a
springboard, and a place where traditional publishing minds feel
comfortable with their content being shared amongst people, without
feeling screwed, and without completely screwing the public.