In the glory days of the S&Ls, I worked for a larger-than-life Texas "White Knight," who had a surefire way to get 100 percent attendance at staff meetings. This Texas millionaire didn't stop at the traditional coffee and donuts. These were extravagant, catered affairs, complete with wine and cheeses with unpronounceable French names. But it wasn't a free lunch--we had to give him our complete attention. And he accomplished his goal of communicating important information and getting the scoop on day-to-day operations from us.

Web sites operate on much the same principle--giving away something with the goal of getting something in return. But it's hard to make money this way. With a print magazine, you sell copies. With Web content, it's there for people to take (and sometimes, rip off). Yet selling subscriptions to your site only works if you're a really big publisher (like the Wall Street Journal or Consumer Reports) or you're offering hard-to-get, highly specialized information. Most online magazines have failed to successfully implement subscription models and have gone the free route--but they keep their most valuable information off the Web.

You Get What You Pay For

The Web is a sea of information. The biggest upside: There's a lot of information available for free. The biggest downside: Much of this information is shallow, out-of-date, of suspicious origins, or simply wrong. Can you get quality information on the Net? Sometimes. But information providers (and that could be you) have little incentive to put their best content online unless they can get something in return.

Take clip art for example. There are plenty of cartoonish illustrations and stock photos you can download, but will a clip art house put their best material out there for free? No way. You're getting the culls, stuff that's 40 years old that they can't sell anyway. So how can you sell your intellectual property on the Web without getting ripped off? If you really do publish quality clip art, how do you show off your best stuff without giving away the store?

Psst! Wanna Buy Some Information?

There are several different views concerning intellectual property on the Net. One school contends that all information should be free and unencumbered by advertisements. It's a nice idea, but it doesn't speak to the rights of the content creators. A second approach is to use free content to lure paying customers--once they see the free content (and they like it), they'll pay for additional content of greater value.

But when you start offering intellectual property for sale, the threat of infringement rears its head. One way to protect your property is to be constantly vigilant--periodically scour the Web for content, see where it turns up, issue cease-and-desist letters, and if need be, file suit. According to an April 1999 Forrester Research report aptly titled "The Intellectual Property Mess," most companies are concerned about putting their valuable copyrighted and trademarked assets on the Web, "but aren't doing much to protect that property." The report notes that the majority of companies limit their intellectual property protection to placing a copyright or trademark notice on the Web page and sending out cease-and-desist letters. (For more on intellectual property, see "Don't Get Bit!")

Are People Basically Honest?

Cynics--or maybe they're realists--contend that intellectual property online should be encrypted and blocked, so nobody can look at it without the proper authorization. This philosophy may work with expensive and specialized content, but for the majority of intellectual property on the Web, such as magazine or newspaper articles, it's impractical. The "We Are the World" camp thinks that most people will comply with copyright laws. Mike O'Donnell, president and CEO of iCopyright, Inc., says optimistically, "People will do the right thing if it's easy and fairly priced." Of course, that's precisely iCopyright's philosophy--the company is a copyright and reprint clearinghouse for publishers ranging from the L.A. Times to IDG (publishers of PC World, Infoworld, and other magazines).

There are no up-front fees to publishers using the iCopyright system--iCopyright just takes a percentage of the transactions it conducts on behalf of the publisher. There's very little involved in getting set up; iCopy right does almost everything for you. The hardest part on the publisher's end is coming up with the business rules and price structure, specifying what material can be used (and under what circumstances), and what each level of permission will cost.

Still another approach is relying on technology to prevent content from being pirated. Digital watermarks are common with high-value imagery, but companies such as Vyou.com now make it possible to prevent any type of content, including text, from being printed or reused. The Vyoufirst Director tool lets you establish policies that allow you to control the circumstances in which a Web surfer can copy, save, or print your content. This lets you say to visitors, "You can see it for free, but if you want to use it, you gotta pay." Users who want to see your content must download the Vyoufirst plug-in, which locks their browsers into a read-only mode.

"I Wanna Send That to Mom"

Companies that worry about copyright infringement typically focus on preventing commercial use of their intellectual property without proper permission or payment. "If it's for personal use," says O'Donnell, "no publisher or owner of an article is going to begrudge someone making a personal copy or sending one copy off to somebody."

©2000 Dan Blacharski. All rights reserved.

Dan Blacharski has written several books on telecommunications, networking, and information security. He lives in Santa Cruz with his wife and three children and enjoys staring out his office window at his backyard koi pond. You can reach him at dblach@pacbell.net.