Re: [h2o-discuss] Fatbrain

[Alex Chudnovsky <b9678050@wlv.ac.uk>]

On Thu, 2 Sep 1999 21:09:36 -0700 (PDT) John Kwasnik <jkwasnik@jps.net> 
wrote:

>         In the U.S., at least, thanks to the Digital Millenium Copyright
> Act, Fatbrain would be immune from any lawsuits arising from
> copyright-infringing content of its clients' work.  Fatbrain need only claim
> ignorance of the infringement, and remove the allegedly infringing content
> from its service, if necessary.

Thanks for pointing that out, I am not an expert in law.
 
>         So the question for prospective authors is what can Fatbrain do for
> us, that we can't do for ourselves by opening our own websites?

I would see two things it can really do:

1. Having your work on a popular site takes away a headache of making 
people know about you, yet alone buy. You might have written a good
work but since no one knows about it, no one will visit your own site,
of course this applies to 99% of the authors, not someone like Tolkien 
or King. So, here Fatbrain can give an edge.

2. Handling payments -- it is expensive to keep a good credit card 
payment system to prevent abuses. It is cost effective to have one 
similar system for 1000s of people. This is vital because given the 
supposedly low cost of the books ($1 or even less), having such an 
optimal system is a must. That's again where Fatbrain takes all the 
risks and costs.




Sincerely yours,

  Alex Chudnovsky, BA MSc
  University of Wolverhampton, UK

  WWW: http://www.investigatio.com