One option floated in the LA Times is to lift Anti-Trust regulations on the newspaper industry to allow collusion.
Permitting "collusion" to give media companies the
confidence to charge for their content by dropping anti-trust oversight will not work. But the government should help establish an entity to administer a "universal currency" to facilitate
competition and innovation in a free market.
SaveTheNews.org provides a comprehensive review of why lifting Anti-Trust regulations to allow collusion goes against the principle of freedom of the press. In Salon, King Kaufman, author of The Future of Journalism blog, writes "We must kill press freedom to save it."
Techdirt points out the reality that even with collusion, some competitors will seize the opportunity to take traffic from paid alternatives.
I agree. The so-called "collusion" strategy won't work for two key reasons. First, media companies are wise to lack confidence in charging for content "as is" because consumers won't pay for it "as is." Second, according to Robert Picard, the current micropayment transaction system is not profitable. The cost to administer and distribute payments to all stakeholders is too expensive. So it just won't solve the problem.
As Picard suggests, we
need a universal system that rewards both small (Long Tail) and large
publishers and programmers.
It needs to be two-way. After all, commercial websites benefit from links from personal sites and the low cost of user generated content. As in many kids community websites, it should be a point system. One is credited for linking clicks to a site or providing content for a site. One is debited for consuming content- at two price points: a) for personal, non-commercial consumption and b)for publishing that content for commercial (for profit reasons). Credits and debits are accumulated and netted out at the end of each month and a charge is made accordingly, like "Easy Pass" for road tolls.
Before everyone freaks out about the inevitability of taxes with a universal "currency." As long as the system is facilitating everyone to make money (small to large companies) and the tax is on profits, isn't it worth it?
Who is the governing body? Shouldn't it reflect the international constituency of the internet? Is the IMF the model?
Katherine Warman Kern
@comradity
