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BuonRotto
Not sayin', just sayin'
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
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2007-04-11, 18:23

As far as the owning versus subscribing thing, I think:

1. people are going to go with established patterns here to begin with as far as online models are concerned. In other words, people are used to buying music, used to renting movies, used to watching TV for "free" (with advertising and cable/satellite bills for access). That can and will likely change as time goes on and innovations are made online, but to begin with, people like their computers to act as analogs to what's out there now.

2. people will likely want to rent with the chance to also own. I think the best idea would be for a way to listen or watch something for a minimal rental/access cost with the option to buy once it's over or sometime later. you sort of have this with previews now, but I see something far more scalable: previews, then "rental" full view, then owning for a fix time, then outright ownership, then of course completing an album or TV series or even movie franchises for discounts. something like that anyway. so long as the path is clear, I don't see why online media need be limited to the somewhat false dichotomy we have with "brick and mortar" purchasing. It can be much more fluid. Again, clarity and some kind of consensus is probably needed or else a de facto standard will be set naturally, i.e., the general market leader will set the terms everyone else will mirror as a baseline for competition.
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