Steve Schear <steve@lvdi.net> writes: [...] In the second part, Eric predicted that because of the Net's economics and anonymous mailing and publication potential copyrights were on their way out. He acknowledged that some workable method of artist compensation was still needed and proposed the movie industry as a possible model. In this scenario a multi-level money collection and product distribution scheme would be supported by artist reputation and completion bonds. This is just an observation, I have no idea how true this is and if it is to what extent, but... I have several friends who work in the `movie business' and all of these people claim that the "multi-level money collection" system is in fact a very poor system. There is considerable fraud and abuse at all levels (from cinema to production) which means that the end result is that the artists are no paid all they are `owed' and that the consumer pays a premium for what they receive. Without going into details, I can think of many ways that abuse could indeed occur and wouldn't necessarily encourage this type of model for 'net commerce. Perhaps a similar situation exists with books? -Chris