Wave Systems Corp. (WAVX) has a patented device called a WaveMeter. It combines encryption and record-control capabilities to provide a comprehensive solution for the secure distribution of intellectual property to a consumer at a personal computer, set-top box, or other terminal.
Check out wave.com.
The Wavemeter will enable microtransactions in digital content - whether by wire, over the air, or on physical media - even when untethered to the web. This new distribution channel will be good for everyone. Content can be metered like electricity. A fair and efficient meter is good for everybody.
People will go after the content they want. Wave will provide a distribution mechanism that produces microtransactions so efficient that everybody - content seller, platform seller, and end user - benefits. As Peter Sprague has said, people don't drive around looking for parking meters. They look for good parking spaces. Build a fair and efficient parking meter at each good parking space and it will get used by people acting in their own interests.
When alternating current became the standard for commercial electric service, Edison initially felt that utilities would have to charge flat rates for its delivery. Why? Because he despaired of developing a fair, efficient, economical meter. The Wavemeter represents a fair, efficient, and economical meter for the distribution of digital intellectual property. The attractiveness of being able to effect accurate microtransactions in digital content - so you can buy the piece of a database that you need and not pay an economic rent on the rest of that database - is compelling.
Wave's chip-based solution creates a win-win-win-win for content provider, platform builder, end user, and Wave. The value of the efficiency it brings to the distribution process can be divvied up among all sides of an e.commerce transaction.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. |
