Detailed response to Clay Shirkey's criticism of micropayments by Scott McCloud, the author of The Right Number, an online comic sold for twenty-five cents via Bit Pass. Significantly, McCloud observes (correctly) that "Shirky’s first two examples have nothing to do with the business model of BitPass—the company he’s trying to rhetorically obliterate!" And McCloud takes on Shirkey's fame versus fortune argument: " A little fame should make you a little fortune. A lot of fame should make you a lot of fortune. And at no point should fame drive you into bankruptcy and annihilate your livelihood." All well and good, but let's look at BitPass. I find two major issues with the service. First, when offering content selections, it only offers commercial selections - and hence, free content is squeezed out of the market. And second, if you want to buy McCloud's cartoon, it's Bit Pass or nothing. I call that a monopoly, and monopolies undermine markets.
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