From DBWiki

Contents 1 A Quick Introduction to Bitmunk (from an artist's perspective) 2 How does Bitmunk help me distribute my work? 3 How do I set my royalties? 4 How is my work distributed? 5 Can I get recognized through Bitmunk? 6 Do you use DRM (Digital Rights Management)?

A Quick Introduction to Bitmunk (from an artist's perspective)

Bitmunk is a place for people from all over the world to buy and sell music, television, and movies. This network was made for artists, publishers, distributors and media fans. Bitmunk can sell your digital content just like online music/TV/movie stores, or you can opt-in to use our secure copyright-aware P2P network.

Peer-to-peer networks are the most efficient way to distribute digital content. Unfortunately, up until now, artists have not been able to get paid whenever their work was distributed over a P2P network. This has resulted in some artists and publishers pursuing other means by which to distribute their digital content online. Furthermore, many of these other services do not allow the artist to set their own royalties or get paid anything that is remotely worth their efforts.

Bitmunk is the first, copyright-aware P2P network in existence, and it makes sure that the artist gets paid the price they set every single time their work is downloaded. Bitmunk puts the people that should be in control (that's you) at the center.

How does Bitmunk help me distribute my work?

As an artist or publisher on Bitmunk, you can register your digital works for free and have them listed in our searchable database. Any Bitmunk user will have access to your works to download and purchase, and even re-sell them. Each time your work is sold on Bitmunk, you will get paid a royalty that you set. Bitmunk puts you in control of your own work. You pick your royalty price and if your fans are willing to pay it, you'll start making money.

How do I set my royalties?

There are a couple things to keep in mind when setting your royalty prices on Bitmunk. Each party involved in the creation and distribution of a digital work determines how much money they will receive per sale. That means that the total price of your work will be:

Your royalty + seller's price + Bitmunk's fee + ISP fees (if any)

Basic market strategy should go into how your prices are chosen in order to maximize your profits. Here is an example scenario for an independent artist named Sue:

Sue believes she should receive $0.70 for every sale of her song. She arrives at this number by reasoning that there would be a lot of sellers willing to make around $0.15 per sale on her song -- leaving the total price of the song at $1.00, the total amount a fan would be willing to pay for the song.

Sue's royalty ($0.70) + seller's fee ($0.15) + Bitmunk fee ($0.15) = $1.00.

So, if a song would maximize profits at $1.00, and there would be a lot of sellers who would sell your song for around $0.15, the artist could set a royalty of $0.70. In general, the more sellers the artist picks up, the more bandwidth will be available for downloading and the quicker you will generate profits.

While this example uses a song total price of $1.00, it does not mean that songs must be sold for $1.00. Bitmunk is a free marketplace and is not tied down to the $1.00 or $0.99 per song paradigm that other services are locked into. The worth of a song will be a combination of what the artist feels their song is worth and whatever the fans who want to buy it are willing to pay, just like a true marketplace -- a real Digital Bazaar.

You can set your royalties on the Set Royalties Page after you have logged in as a content creator on Bitmunk.

How is my work distributed?

You can always use our online web store to sell your material, it works just like any other online digital content store. However, your material won't be nearly as popular as it would be if you used our secure P2P distribution network.

On Bitmunk, you have access to an unlimited amount of bandwidth to distribute your work. This is one of the great strengths of a P2P network, everyone contributes to it. When you clear digital content for sale on Bitmunk, it immediately becomes available for sale via our internal sales server. This means that no matter what, you'll always have at least one seller selling your work.

However, you have the ability to harness a much larger selling audience with Bitmunk. If you price your work reasonably, then any user on Bitmunk will be able to sell your work to any other user with a small profit for themselves as an incentive. This means that you'll get your work out their quickly and maximize your profits. This also means that users that want to share your work can support you and get paid if they share it on Bitmunk, so why would they share it on a network that offers them nothing in return?

Each time your work is sold on Bitmunk, you will get paid the royalty that you have set. In general, the more people that are selling your work, the more recognition and revenue you'll produce.

Can I get recognized through Bitmunk?

Absolutely. Whenever you register or claim a work with Bitmunk and clear it for sale, it will become available for every user on Bitmunk. If it is rated well, or often purchased, it will be listed as one of our top rated works on our front news page for everyone to see. Registering your new works with Bitmunk is free -- so do it often!

Do you use DRM (Digital Rights Management)?

DRM, like any other control-oriented scheme, has an inherent incentive to be cracked. Because DRM restricts a user's fair use rights by tying them down to a particular device or piece of software, there will always be users that will crack DRM'd digital media. These technologically-savvy users are likely to distribute the cracked works to their friends and to free file-trading networks, without anyone ever knowing the DRM was stripped from the file. They distribute the cracked version in order to help others be free to use what they purchased with the device or software of their choice, they do not do it to steal digital media.

DRM provides a false sense of security for the artist -- if your work is DRM'd, it will be cracked and it will end up, undetected, on a free P2P network for the very reason that it has been DRM'd. DRM is a strategy that assumes the fans of music (and other digital media) are all criminals -- that, if given the opportunity, they will steal. The reality of the situation is not that fans are criminals, it is that there hasn't been a better way to easily distribute digital media, until now. Bitmunk provides the user and artist a better solution.

Bitmunk uses non-invasive digital watermarking. This means that the files bought and sold on Bitmunk are protected, but not locked down to a particular device or piece of software. Each file is marked with who purchased the file and therefore who rightfully owns that particular copy (like a digital receipt). This means that your fans retain their fair use rights and your file cannot be redistributed on another network without you being able to find out about it. Users should be free to purchase digital media and use it with their device or software of choice, and with Bitmunk, they are. If a buyer abuses your copyright by freely distributing your work without your consent, you can file complaints against that user which could result in fines and banning from Bitmunk.

Because Bitmunk's watermarking does not try to control the fans of digital media, there is little reason for it to be cracked. Bitmunk is providing a solution to the P2P delimma, not just the next way to try and control people.