Q: Exactly how is a consumer user charged for his reading, viewing
or listening?
A: Clickshare is WWW-based. When a Clickshare-enabled user clicks on Clickshare-protected content, a record of the request is made in
background. If the page is priced above a user specified threshold, the user will
be asked for confirmation before receiving it.
Only the user's Clickshare Service Provider bills the user. The Service
Provider also determines how the transaction log maps to user charges. If the
Service Provider applies a simple mark-up (or mark-down), the service provider
applies the mark-up and periodically bills the user through whatever financial
arrangement the user made with the service provider (e.g., credit-card charge,
addition to cable, ISP, or phone bill, etc.).
Clickshare Service Providers can choose from a number of flexible
methods for billing end users. The billing services can be provided by
Clickshare Service Corp., by a third party, or by the Service Provider.
The most common choice is a flat subscription fee charged the end user
and billed monthly, quarterly or annually. The fee provides access to
basic resources determined by the Service Provider. However, per-item
billing may be included or added for out-of-subscription resources.
The only billing and payment relationship at the consumer level is between
the Service Provider and the user.
The Service Providers and Content Providers draw from or pay into a
clearing account at Clickshare Service Corp. A Content Provider
that also acts as a Service Provider pays or receives a net figure
equal to the sum of the Service Providers user-member clicks -- offset
against any original content that the Content Provider has "served"
to the global Clickshare system. This could be a net positive or negative
number, depending how active a supplier of content
the Content Provider is. If it is positive, the Content Provider doesn't
have to charge its users a very high monthly fee to make money. If it is
negative, the Content Provider may need to raise the subscription fees.
What is the fee for a content or service provider to become a part of the
Clickshare service?
