Flattery will get you everywhere

May 14th, 2010 by Tommaso De Benetti

The Swedes are interesting people, known for their tasty meatballs and thinking outside the box, even when thinking inside it. Just as they revolutionized furniture, tennis and ski-jumping, with The Pirate Bay (TPB) they changed our perception of copyright infringement forever.

Right to copy?
Before a few geeks in Stockholm brought us TPB, there were Napster, eMule, WinMX and Kazaa. While all these companies allowed people to freely download digital content (whether legally or not), the cultural battle over the legitimacy of piracy became a central issue only after the birth of TPB. Subsequent years have seen the flourishing of political parties to stimulate discussion over copyright issues and demand policies better suited for the internet age.

Copyright and the future of paid content on the internet are complicated matters, obviously deserving more attention than is possible in a short blog post (if interested I suggest taking a look at what Chris Anderson and Matt Mason have said about these issues). Putting aside the grumbling arguments of established content producers – who are yet to figure out a workable business model for the broadband age – free-for-all content also makes life difficult for those smaller, perhaps not strictly commercial, producers.

Recently some friends of mine, along with about fifty other people around the world, filmed and post-produced an amazing fan-movie. Despite working hard on the project for over three years and funding it entirely with their own money, they elected to release it freely on the web. The film was downloaded by thousands of people and, considering its tiny budget, received an exceptional critical response.

Although the film was freely available, it is reasonable to assume that many of those who watched it would have gladly left a few coins to the team as a token of their appreciation. As discussed in an earlier post, the best way to make a donation over the internet is still through PayPal, a system many people consider either intimidating or too much hassle. This psychological barrier means even enthusiastic fans of a creation often hesitate when it comes to deciding if and how much to donate. Is PayPal, then, the best solution we can come up with?

Love’s ok, but money talks
Once again, our friends the Swedes had a better idea: Flattr. Flattr, now in beta, is a “social micropayment platform that lets you show love for the things you like.” When a user registers with Flattr, she sets a certain monthly budget, say 5€. After that, whenever she likes a video or song or any other content she can flattr it by simply clicking on a button similar in concept to the popular Facebook Like. At the end of the month, all the content she has flattred will receive an equal portion of the 5€. The individual amounts may not be much, but obviously if enough people flattr the money could make a real difference.

Johnny Penny Barlow, former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, once spoke out his worries on digitalization:
“How are we going to get paid for the work we do with our minds? And, if we can’t get paid, what will assure the continued creation and distribution of such work? Since we don’t have a solution to what is a profoundly new kind of challenge, and are apparently unable to delay the galloping digitalization of everything not obstinately physical, we are sailing into the future on a sinking ship.”

I wonder what Johnny would say if thousands of music fans showed him that their wallets are in the same place as their enthusiastic YouTube cover versions and comments? After all, while imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, sometimes it means more to put your money where your mouth is.

I’m not sure if Flattr is going to be the next PayPal, but I’m excited to see the development of more user-friendly methods to show appreciation for quality content, regardless of its marketing budget.

---

Share

 Print article

---