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For apologists of the notorious "Information wants to be free" dictum paid
content is like a red rag to a bull. In the previous years the internet
community seemed to get used to receive contents for free, but after the
blast of the internet-bubble and as broadband becomes more and more common,
charging fees for high quality contents gets back on the agenda of content
providers worldwide.

"Paid Content", written by Jak Boumans of Electronic Media Reporting in the
Netherlands, investigates the issue of paying for content especially for two
major platforms: the Web and mobile devices.

This second e-content report from ACTeN provides deep insight in the major
commercial and technological developments of the content sector. It looks
back in times and shows how the internet culture developed its resistance to
paid content and what today's industry can learn from that.

"Paid Content" offers an in-depth overview on content related technologies
such as various payment- and Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems and
describes different business models for music, online newspapers and
e-magazines, games and movies.

The report was composed in the framework of ACTeN (Anticipating Content
Technology Needs), an EU-funded thematic network, which aims at stimulating
the development of a European e-content industry by monitoring the digital
media market and by facilitating the transfer of knowledge between research
and industry.

Further reports covering major topics in the field of on-line contents and
technologies will be published in the course 2004.

Download the full e-content report:
http://www.acten.net/cgi-bin/WebGUI/www/index.pl/paid_content

Inform yourself on the various activities of ACTeN at:
http://www.acten.net/