by Asim Jalis
Here is an interesting solution to music and software piracy.
The Potato System.
The basic idea is this: replace the adversarial relationship
between content originator (producer) and content distributor
(pirate) with a win-win relationship in which the producer pays
the pirate commissions for distributing the software. The
producer provides the accounting infrastructure for collecting
payments and paying the pirate. The most prolific pirate now has
an incentive to cooperate with the producer. If he cooperates he
can make money. If he does not cooperate and shares without the
infrastructure he makes nothing.
The end result of this is a multi-level marketing (or pyramid)
scheme.
In this next paper Andreas Schmidt discusses the mathematical
properties of this value network.
On Incentive Systems Based on Multi-Level Marketing of Virtual
Goods.
