Don't charge when a link is read [LWN.net]

Don't charge when a link is read

Posted Sep 29, 2005 9:16 UTC (Thu) by felixfix (subscriber, #242)
In reply to: Slashdot by komarek
Parent article: An LWN status update

You might send it to a friend and expect to pay once, but when if the friend doesn't realize the cost and forwards the link, or someone down the line puts it on a web site. That could get mighty expensive!

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Don't charge when a link is read

Posted Sep 29, 2005 9:55 UTC (Thu) by Quazatron (subscriber, #4368) [Link]

I think it would be a good idea if the link was 'read-once'. That way you could be charged for it and your friend would be the only one to see it. After he reads the article, the link becomes invalid and you are charged some small amount.

Don't charge when a link is read

Posted Sep 29, 2005 10:36 UTC (Thu) by dion (subscriber, #2764) [Link]

Well, the obvious fix is to make each link limited to something like 5 different users.

So if I forward a link to a friend of mine and then he can use that link in his own browser all he wants (set a 2 week cookie) and he can forward it to 4 other people if he wants.

The pages that they get served should state something like: "This page is is subscriber only content, but dion gave you free access, if it's any good please consider buying your own subscribtion"

Number 6 who gets the mail should get a friendly message that the content is subscriber-only, but they can get a fresh link directly from me.

Paying for the links could be as easy as subtracting a day from my subscribtion (that seems fair enough to me).

Put a forwardable link on all linkable items that I can just copy+paste into my own IM/email client.