WO2003081382A2

WO2003081382A2 - Method of providing compensation to internet content providers

Info

Publication number: WO2003081382A2
Application number: PCT/US2003/007677
Authority: WO
Inventors: Staffan Berglof
Original assignee: Content Compensation Agency Inc.
Priority date: 2002-03-19
Filing date: 2003-03-12
Publication date: 2003-10-02
Also published as: AU2003222284A1; WO2003081382A3; AU2003222284A8

Abstract

The method is for charging users of web sites a fee for gaining access to content of the web sites (51a-51h) and compensating content providers of the web sites. An Internet service provider (18, 20, 22) enrolls a user (12, 14, 16) with an agreement (24) to provide access to the Internet. The user pays a subscription fee (26) to the service provider that forms an agreement (28) with a compensation agency (30). The service provider sends an agency payment (32, 38, 40) to the agency that has an agreement (42) formed with a content provider (44a-44h) of the website. The agency sends a compensation payment (46a-46h) to the content provider. The subscription fee is greater than the agency payment that is greater than the compensation payment.

Description

METHOD OF PROVIDING COMPENSATION TO INTERNET CONTENT PROVIDERS

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method for providing compensation to content providers of information for Internet web sites.

Background Information and Summary of Invention

Many web sites are struggling with the issue of how to get compensated for the content that is provided on the web sites. Many revenue or business models have been developed for this purpose. Some web sites are experimenting with the introduction of subscription fees or other types of entrance charges. However, the web site operators are also concerned about not to unduly reduce the traffic to the web site that may reduce the income from advertizing revenues. There is a risk of reduced traffic because many Internet users are still not used to paying for obtaining access to web sites/ Another problem is that the administration and transaction costs associated with entrance charges can sometimes be higher than the payment itself. There is a need for a convenient, reliable and effective method for compensating the content providers of web sites that does not reduce the traffic to the web sites and maintains the Internet as open and freely accessible as possible.

The method of the present invention provides a solution to the above-outlined problems. More particularly, the method of the present invention is for charging users of web sites a fee for gaining access to content of the web sites and compensating content providers of the web sites. An Internet service provider may enroll a user with an agreement to provide access to the Internet. The user pays a subscription fee to the service provider that has an agreement formed with a compensation agency. The user may also pay an agency fee directly to the compensation agency and by-pass the service provider that does not participate. The participating service provider sends an agency payment to the agency that has an agreement formed with a content provider of the website. The agency sends a compensation payment to the content provider. The subscription fee is greater than the agency payment that is greater than the compensation payment.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of information and money flows between users, service providers, compensation agency, the qualified web sites and various agreements; Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of the level of sophistication of different types of content of web sites; and Fig. 3 is an illustrative example of an invoice from an Internet service provider to an Internet user.

Detailed Description

With reference to Figs. 1-3, the present invention is a unique compensation system 10 that provides compensation for the content provided by web sites. The compensation system is effective by making every Internet user pay a small periodical fee for gaining access to the content of a large group of affiliated web sites. Such a group could be all the web sites in a country or a language area. An important aspect of the system 10 is that it maintains the Internet as open and freely accessible as possible while providing the content providers with compensation.

More particularly, the system 10 has a set of users 12, 14, 16 that are connected to the Internet via Internet service providers 18, 20, 22, respectively. The users have an agreement with at least one Internet service provider. An Internet service provider may provide access to the Internet using different technologies, such as standard telephone lines, fiber optic cables or radio waves. For example, the user 12 may have an agreement 24 with the Internet service provider 18 so that the user 12 pays a fee 26 to the provider 18 for providing access to the Internet and its web sites. The provider 18 may, in turn, have entered into an agreement 28 with a compensation agency 30 so that a portion of the total fee 26 is sent as a payment 32 to the agency 30. The fee may be constructed in different ways such as being based on a flat rate fee or a percentage of the user' s access charge collected by the Internet service provider. The fee may be dynamic in the sense that it is augmented if the total number of web sites affiliated to the agency increases or if the production cost levels of the web site producers are increased. Preferably, the agreements 28 between the agency 30 and the Internet service providers 18, 20, 22 are voluntary but could be compulsory by, for example, government or industry organization decree. One assumption may be that the service providers 18, 20, 22 are likely to include the compensation fee, in instances as a separate item, in their invoices to the subscribers to increase the chances of the continued free access to the content of the web sites. It is in the interest of the Internet service providers that the Internet is going to continue to be open to everybody and not gradually be closed down as independent web site operators start charging visitors. By keeping the Internet open and maintaining a high quality of its content, the number of subscribers and users of the Internet are likely to remain high which is good business for the service providers.

The role of the agency 30 may include distributing money to the content providers, i.e. the web sites, and decide the rules that govern such distribution/compensation. For example, the agency 30 may decide not to distribute money to pornographic sites and other sites that may be considered as harmful to society. As described below, the agency may also decide which web sites have sufficient level of content sophistication to be a qualified web site for receiving compensation from the agency. Another role of the agency 30 is to monitor the web sites to make sure that the level of content sophistication is kept high enough to satisfy the agency's compensation criteria. Also, it is important to monitor the activity on the web sites so that the web sites do not create methods to artificially increase the traffic to the sites by, for example, creating free lotteries that give high prices. The increased compensation from the agency 30, as a result of the artificially increased traffic to the web site may exceed the total cost of the lottery prices.

Similarly, the users 14, 16 send fees 34, 36 to the providers 20, 22 that, in turn, send payments 38, 40 to the agency 30, respectively. In this way, the agency 30 may receive payments from a plurality of providers to form a distribution fund 41.

The agency 30 may have agreements 42 with the website operators 44a-h to provide compensation for the content/information provided on the web sites. The web sites must have a certain level of content sophistication so that web sites that merely include brochures, computer lists, statistics, catalogs, links, chat lists may not be compensated by the system 10.

As best shown in Fig. 2, the web sites may be categorized according to a level of content sophistication 45 so that electronic brochures 47 and various catalogs 48 are considered to have a lower level of sophistication than, e.g. journalistic material on affiliated web sites 44a-h. The approval process for the qualification of the web sites 44a-h may be conducted by the agency 30.

The agency 30 may distribute the money in the fund 41 according to the traffic level of each web site 44a-h. In this way, the most frequently visited web site, such as the web site 44a, may obtain a proportionally higher portion of the fund 41 compared to the other web sites 44b-44h. The basis of distribution of the financial fund may also refer to individual sub-pages of web sites. This may imply that traffic on one sub-page may, for example, be compensated due to its high level of sophistication, but another may not receive anything from the fund. In this way, the site 44a receives a payment 46a that is higher than a payment 46b that goes to the site 44b. The remaining web sites 44c-h may receive the payments 46c-h in the same proportional way as the web sites 44a-b. It is also possible to provide some compensation to the catalog 48 and brochure 47 categories but such compensation should be less. The agency 30 may require the web sites 44a-h to report the number of visits in report signals, such as the web site 44a sending a report signal 49a to the agency 30. It is important that the information of the report signal 49a is controlled and standardized so that all the web sites report this information to the agency in the same consistent way. It may also be possible for the agency 30 or a separate traffic measuring entity 50 to perform the measurement of the traffic to the web sites. If the entity 50 carries out the monitoring of the traffic, the entity 50 may send a report signal 52 in response to monitoring signals 54a, 54b from for example the web sites 44a, 44b. The other sites 44c-44h also report the traffic to the agency 30 or the entity 50 in the same way. Of course, the distribution of the fund 41 may be according to other distribution criteria such as dividing the funds equally among all the web sites 44a-44h. The compensation may also be based on the total active time the users are visiting the sites. The active time should be distinguished from inactive time when the user leaves the computer connected to a web site without really using the information on the site. Another variable could be the number of clicks each user is performing while connected to the web sites. It may also be possible to provide compensation to certain web sites although the traffic to the sites is not high because the agency 30 may decide that the web sites provide information that is good for the society such a local newspapers and artistic web sites. The decision of compensation may also be used to simply subsidize small web sites with low traffic as long as the content provided by the web sites is within the guidelines of the agency 30. Any other distribution criteria may be used, as required.

Instead of measuring the traffic at each site it may also be possible to measure which sites a number of selected users are visiting. This may be performed by connecting the user' s computer to measurement devices and then use statistical formulas to determine the likely distribution of the number of visit to all the affiliated sites. This method may be less precise but requires substantially fewer resources .

Fig. 3 shows an example of an invoice 56 from the Internet service provider 18 to the user 12. The invoice 56 may have the subscription fee 58 and a content compensation agency fee 60 that is mandatory. It should be understood that the fee 60 could be voluntary and the cash-flow could in that case be created so that the user 16 may pay either the service provider or directly in a payment signal 43 to the agency 30. In the case when the payment is made directly in the signal 43 to the agency 30, without participation of the service provider, the system may use an existing billing system or client registry to collect the fee 60 at a low transaction cost. This way of collecting the fee may be necessary if the service providers do not want to support the system. The fee 60 could be seen as similar to the various access fees that are charged in addition to the telephone calls on many telephone bills. Most customers of the telephone companies accept and pay these small fees.

As indicated above, one incentive for the service providers 18, 20, 22 to include the fee 60 is to reduce the risk of web sites closing down due to lack of adequate compensation to the content providers of the web sites. Such closures may reduce the attractiveness of the Internet and the willingness to pay for accessing the services. By including the fee 60 there is a higher likelihood that the content provider may continue to provide the necessary content and updates of the web sites.

An important aspect of the system 10 is that the fee 60 should be very small but that every user must pay the fee so that the many small fees add up to a considerable amount. This amount may then be distributed to the content providers of the web sites that are associated with the content compensation agency 30. By paying the fee 60, each user 12, 14, 16 gets free access to all information provided by the web sites 51a-h without the need for individual subscription to each and every web site 44. In the alternative, the user may pay the agency fee 43 directly to the agency 30 when or if the service provider is not participating in compensating the content providers of the websites. In this way, the user may gain access of all information provide by the web sites although the service provider is not participating. As indicated earlier, the web sites 51a-h are all web sites that are qualified to be associated with the agency 30 because they include a sufficient amount of information that require a substantial amount of work to be produced and that may require time consuming and regular updating. Another aspect of the qualification requirements is that the user receives free information without having to provide anything in return to the newspaper, except for viewing some of the advertisement.

For example, an on-line newspaper requires daily updating with original information and the user may simply read the information, if the user so desires, without providing any direct benefit to the on-line newspaper. In contrast, a sales brochure and catalogs may result in a direct benefit to the web site in that the user may purchase the products presented. The size of the fee 60 should be such that it should cover the costs associated with providing the content on the web sites 51a-h. The fee 60 also provides the users with no marginal expenditure for viewing a web site that the user only rarely is seeking access to. Also, if the web site operator has sufficient band width and server capacity, there is no marginal cost for the web site operator either. This creates a system where users are not charged for activities that have no marginal cost for the suppliers of the content and the infrastructure of the Internet. The system may have such properties that it becomes better for the content providers as more content providers enroll to it. One reason is that the user's marginal propensity to consume content decreases with the amount of content consumed but the willingness to pay the fee, directly as the payment signal 43 shows or indirectly as the signals 32, 38, 40 indicate, increases as the number of different content providers is augmented. The total fund 30 may thus be increased through more fees as the choice increases but distribution remains with those actually visited by the user. It may be possible for the web site operators to screen out Internet service providers that do not participate in the system 10 and charge their subscribers/customers the content agency fee when they want to visit or gain access to the information of the web site. It could be up to each web site operator to decide if a screening system, based on whether the customer's service provider is a participant or not, should be used. The customers of non-participating service providers may be required to pay a fee each time the non-participating customers want to gain access to the information on the affiliated web sites 51a-h.

Preferably, the system 10 should be operated without using any screening methods and keep the Internet open to everybody. Even if the web site operators do not screen out the non-participating service providers, the service providers that do not contribute to the compensation agency 30 may gain a bad reputation through publications in the media. The agency 30 may have marketing group that contacts all the service providers to discuss the advantages of participating in the agency' s compensation system and how the compensation could improve the content of the web sites. It may also be possible to provide a special logotype to all the participating content providers. The logotype may also be used to show that a web site is an affiliated web site. The user may click on the logo to learn more about the compensation concept provided by the agency 30. It may also be possible to use the logotype to distract the viewing of the web site for non-participating users. Another method is to introduce distraction lines to make it more difficult to read the information on the affiliated web sites for non- participating users. The web site operators may also screen out certain IP identification numbers. The agency 30 could charge different fees to different users depending upon the scope of the use of the users. For example, one fee could only permit the user to access national web sites while a higher fee could provide free access to international web sites. A foreign user could pay the equivalent foreign compensation agency a fee for obtaining access to, for example, Swedish web sites. A distribution of the compensation may then be transferred from the foreign compensation agency to the Swedish compensation agency. The system may then exist as separate versions for different universes of the Internet. Each universe, for example country, may have its own replica of the system. Users visiting web sites affiliated to one version of the system may generate compensation to these web sites. In this case, cross system traffic is recorded and used for computation of the compensation to other versions of the system. The foreign user, that uses foreign Internet service providers, may be required to pay a fee directly to the web sites that may be higher than the fee 60. In this way, there is no need to make the charges go via the local Internet service providers. Upon visiting one of the affiliated web sites 51a-h, the foreign user may be asked to join the service provided by the agency 30 in order to gain access to all the other web sites 51a-h for free. Once the foreign user is a member, no pop-up screens will appear as long as the foreign user is an active member. The Internet service providers could have many different modem pools so that users who only use a limited service, such as email, pay a lower fee than those who surf the web sites 51a-h. The user who pays a higher fee may be provided with suitable cookies or certificates to give free access to all the qualified web sites. It is possible to include the content compensation agency fee as part of a package when users buy, for example, a computer or modem. It is also possible to encourage the users, both in the mandatory and the voluntary variant of the system, to pay the fee by providing various rewards. Such rewards may include free access to high-value content on the Internet, various archives with access to the Internet and the free use of search engines .

While the present invention has been described in accordance with preferred compositions and embodiments, it is to be understood that certain substitutions and alterations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the following claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. A method of charging users of web sites a fee for gaining access to content of the web sites and compensating content providers of the web sites, the method comprising: an Internet service provider (18, 20, 22) enrolling a user (12, 14, 16) with an agreement (24) to provide access to the Internet; the user sending an agency payment (43) directly to a compensation agency (30); and the agency forming an agreement (42) with a content provider (44a-44h) of the website (51a-51h) , the agency sending a compensation payment (46a-46h) to the content provider, the agency payment being greater than the compensation payment.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises basing the compensation payment on an amount of traffic to each website.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the agency determining which websites are to be compensated based on a content sophistication level (45).

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the agency collecting the agency payments in a fund (41) that is distributed to the content providers based on a frequency of visits of the websites.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the content provider sending a report signal (49a) to the agency to inform about an activity level at the web site.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the content provider sending a monitoring signal (54a) to a traffic measuring entity (50) that sends a report signal (52) to the agency.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the user sending a payment (43) directly to the agency.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the content provider screening out user that have not paid the service provider the subscription fee that includes the compensation payment.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the website sensing a geographic location of the user and the content provider charging a fee when the user is located outside a predetermined geographic area.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises: the user paying a subscription fee (26) to the service provider; the service provider forming an agreement (28) with a compensation agency (30); and the service provider sending an agency payment (32, 38, 40) to the agency.