A Publishing and Royalty Model for Networked Documents
by Theodor Holm Nelson
INTRODUCTION
For some years the Xanadu* project has been planning a royalty publishing
service for networked documents. The proposed system has a number of aspects,
some of which are subtle.
THE ROLES
"Publication" under most systems of law means making a document public. A
publisher, then, is whoever, or whatever entity, commits the act of
publishing. The role of publisher corresponds to the paper publisher: that
person or entity which takes the initiative of publication, receives the
profits and is sued for the contents.
(The role of author may or may not be different from the publisher; but
his or her presence is not formally acknowledged within the contractual system;
it is assumed that the publisher has made appropriate arrangements with the
author, and it is up to the publisher to pay the author in whatever way they
have agreed.)
The role of service provider is like that of printer and
distributor in the paper world. The publisher contracts with the service
provider for the material to be reproduced and distributed, just as the
publisher now does in the paper world.
The role of customer is like that of "customer" in the ordinary paper
world. But in the paper world, granularity is large: magazines, books and
newspapers are the units of sale. In our model, the unit of sale can be as
small as one byte.
Note, of course, that these roles may overlap. In the network community we
anticipate a customer will often be both author and publisher, as well.
THE PUBLISHING ARRANGEMENT
Publishing consists of network storage and delivery of documents, voluntarily
and explicitly put on line by publishers, and delivery by such fragments as
customers request. Nothing is sent but what the reader asks for. The customer
pays on a per-byte basis for all published materials sent by the server.
THE ROYALTY ARRANGEMENT
The publisher sets the price-per-byte of the document, or of its sections, if
they differ. The customer sends for arbitrary portions (up to the whole
document), paying the royalty for each byte transmitted. (Note that other
royalty arrangements have been mooted during the life of the Xanadu project.)
Contract between publisher and service provider
The publisher contracts with the service provider for the storage of the
document and its sale by arbitrarily small fragment. The service provider
promises to send the royalties for each sent byte. The service provider also
agrees to forward materials to other service providers as needed to provide the
service throughout the network.
In this contract, the publisher also represents that he/she/it is the
rightful publisher, and further agrees to be responsible for any
disagreeable consequences under law or tort (violations of national security,
privacy, copyright, etc.). These same understandings ordinarily hold in paper
publishing, but are not made explicit.
Contract between customer and service provider
The service provider agrees to send materials on demand to the customer. The
customer agrees with the service provider to pay for materials sent--both
royalties at rates specified by the publishers, and delivery fees to the
service provider (as separately negotiated). The customer further agrees only
to "fair use" of materials received--a copy for use, printed out if desired,
and copies for backup--but no further distribution.
Contract between author and publisher
This is assumed, but not formally required. The author agrees to the sale of
materials by the small fragment, and to the various consequences thereof.
TRANSCLUSION
In our software (still under development), we implement a special pointer which
we call transclusion, a handy term for virtual inclusion by
reference across a document boundary. A transclusion pointer from Document
Y to a paragraph in Document Z means that the paragraph is logically and
virtually a part of Document Y.
SPECIAL CONSEQUENCES OF TRANSCLUSION FOR QUOTATION
A problem of universal concern is the issue of copyright violation (from the
point of view of publishers) or the restriction of freedom (from the point of
view of authors wishing to quote other documents). We believe our model nicely
resolves the two motivational thrusts.
The transclusion pointer means that any author is free to quote any document
already published under this system, since the publisher of the other document
has already given contractual permission for sale by fragment. The quoted
materials are thus purchased automatically by the reader from the original
publisher at the time of delivery.
CONCLUSION
There is little question that publishing with royalty on electronic networks
will become a principal feature of the world of information. Sale only of whole
documents is a frustrating practice with limited usefulness. Sale by
user-specified fragment makes transclusion widely practical, making both
possible and fair to all parties many varieties of use which are currently
frustrated within the system of copyright.
However, without contractual recognition of the varied possible ramifications,
many parties may get into difficult situations.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nelson, Theodor Holm, Literary Machines 93.1. $25 prepaid ($40 foreign)
from Mindful Press, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito, CA 94965.
Xanadu Operating Company, "Xanadu Hypermedia Server Developer Documentation,"
July 1992. $150 prepaid ($200 foreign) from Mindful Press, 3020 Bridgeway #295,
Sausalito, CA 94965.
Theodor Holm Nelson
Project Xanadu
3020 Bridgeway #295
Sausalito, CA 94965
* "Xanadu" is a service and trademark for services and software of
Project Xanadu.
