Category:Bitmunk

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Contents 1 Introduction 2 Why Bitmunk? 2.1 Security 3 Bitmunk Entities 3.1 Content Owners 3.2 Buyer 3.3 Seller 3.4 Sales Verification Authority 4 Bitmunk Transaction Process 4.1 Contacting the Seller 4.2 Contract Negotiation 4.3 File Transfer 4.4 Payment Authorization and Decryption 5 Bitmunk Software 5.1 Bitmunk Personal Edition 5.2 Bitmunk Small Business Server 5.3 Bitmunk Enterprise Server 5.4 Bitmunk Sales Appliance 5.5 Bitmunk Sales Kiosk 5.6 Bitmunk Sales Cluster Solution

Introduction

Bitmunk is a service that is run by Digital Bazaar to help people on the Internet buy and sell digital content from each other in a safe, and secure manner. An example would be an online music store run by you - the Bitmunk software would handle all of the sales, receipt handling, monetary transfer, watermarking and ensuring legal compliance during the sale. The Bitmunk software is also used to transact movies, electronic books, medical records and many other forms of digital content.

Why Bitmunk?

Bitmunk exists because of the vast array of people and communities that want to transact with each other on the Internet. People would much rather get their digital content from friends and community websites than a nationally operated chain of stores or giant faceless corporations. The Bitmunk software enables anybody to set up their own digital content store without knowing the complexities of digital transactions, content transfer, steganography, electronic signatures, royalty allocation and content distribution.

Security

Bitmunk is a safe and secure way for anybody to buy and sell digital content online. The entire process uses state-of-the-art technology to ensure that both the buyer and the seller are protected during the entire purchase and sales process. More information on the protection measures we use can be found in our Buyer FAQ and our Seller FAQ.

Bitmunk Entities

There are three distinct types of people on Bitmunk. These are buyers, sellers and content owners. A content owner is somebody that creates or owns the copyright to digital content. A buyer is somebody that wants to purchase digital content. A seller is somebody that is providing digital content on behalf of a content owner. These three types of people, coupled with Bitmunk's Sales Verification Authority, is what makes Bitmunk work.

Content Owners

A content owner is a person or group of people that owns digital content. This can be a musician, writer, band, book publisher, music label, professor, researcher, and anybody else that owns the rights to digital content. On Bitmunk, the content owner is typically the person that get the majority of the payment for digital content. More information on how Bitmunk works for content owners can be found in our Content Creator and Owner FAQ.

Buyer

A buyer is anybody that wants to purchase digital content on Bitmunk. The types of digital content on Bitmunk vary greatly - from music, movies, and television, to electronic books, 3D computer models, and high-definition pictures. To purchase an item on Bitmunk, a buyer typically uses Bitmunk Personal Edition or WebBuy to retrieve the digital content. More information on how Bitmunk works for Buyers can be found in our Buyer FAQ.

Seller

A seller is anybody that is providing digital content for sale on Bitmunk. Anybody can become a seller on Bitmunk, even you. To become a seller on Bitmunk, you can use the Bitmunk Personal Edition software to re-sell digital content that you have purchased via the Bitmunk, or have otherwise legally acquired. More information on how Bitmunk works for sellers can be found in our Seller FAQ.

Sales Verification Authority

The Sales Verification Authority (also known as the SVA) is a service that is run by Bitmunk to ensure that everybody using Bitmunk is protected during the entire purchase and sale process. The system uses many highly-secure, highly-available transaction processing technologies to ensure that you always get what you want on Bitmunk.

Bitmunk Transaction Process

The Bitmunk transaction process is a safe, secure way of purchasing and selling digitial content on the Internet. A basic transaction on Bitmunk involves four mostly-automated steps that are performed for buyers and sellers. These steps include:

1. Contacting the seller
2. Negotiating the contract
3. Transferring the files
4. Authorizing payment and decryption

More in-depth information regarding the purchase process is covered in the Buyer FAQ and the Seller FAQ.

Contacting the Seller

To purchase digital content on Bitmunk, a buyer finds what they want either through the Bitmunk website, the Bitmunk Personal Edition software, or a Bitmunk-aware website, blog, news site, or RSS feed. Typically, all that is required to contact the seller is for the buyer to click on a purchase link on the sellers website.

Contract Negotiation

Once a buyer agrees to buy digital content at a certain price, a transaction contract is automatically created between the buyer and the seller. This ensures that the buyer gets what they want and the seller, artist, and publisher is paid. The contract is uploaded to the Sales Verification Authority and the download begins.

File Transfer

Since a buyer and seller on Bitmunk don't necessarily know each other, the files that the buyer wants are placed in a digitally locked box by the seller and sent to the buyer. In return, the buyer will not authorize payment until all the digital content has been sent by the seller.

Payment Authorization and Decryption

After all of the locked files have been sent to the buyer, the buyer will notify the Sales Verification Authority that they received all of the locked files and that they want to authorize payment to the seller in return for the keys to unlock the digital content.

The Sales Verification Authority then transfers the appropriate amount of money from the buyer to the seller and to the artist and sends the buyer the key to unlock and enjoy their digital content. The end result is a safe and secure transaction between a group of people that never had to meet in real life, nor know each other's identity.

Bitmunk Software

There are a number of software suites that can inter-operate with Bitmunk. Bitmunk itself is a Standard Transaction Platform, meaning that it is a standards-based technology to exchange digital content via the Internet. The various software and systems are available under several generous licenses to students, universities, non-profit organizations, as well as, corporations and other commercial ventures. See the sections below for more information on acquiring and using Bitmunk technology to accomplish your goals.

Bitmunk Personal Edition

Bitmunk Personal Edition is a free version of the Bitmunk software that can both buy and sell digital content via the Internet. It is available via the Bitmunk downloads page. The software is free to use for the general public, including students, universities, non-profit organizations, and corporations.

More information is available on Bitmunk Personal Edition via the product detail page.

Bitmunk Small Business Server

For organizations that want to run a dedicated stand-alone sales server, Digital Bazaar provides the Bitmunk Small Business Edition software. The software can be integrated with your website quickly and easily and provides a way for you to sell digital content directly to your customers.

More information is available on Bitmunk Small Business Edition via the product detail page.

Bitmunk Enterprise Server

For larger organizations that want to run more transactions, Digital Bazaar provides Bitmunk Enterprise Server. The software can be integrated with a website quickly and easily and provides a way to sell digital content directly to your customers.

More information is available on Bitmunk Enterprise Server product page.

Bitmunk Sales Appliance

The Bitmunk Sales Appliance provides a turn-key solution to start selling digital content directly to your customers by wrapping the powerful Bitmunk Transaction Platform in a highly-available, fault-tolerant turn-key hardware package.

More information is available on the Bitmunk Sales Appliance product page.

Bitmunk Sales Kiosk

The Bitmunk Sales Kiosk gives regular brick-and-mortar music and movie stores the ability to start selling digital content in their store-front.

More information is available on the Bitmunk Sales Kiosk product page.

Bitmunk Sales Cluster Solution

The Bitmunk Sales Cluster Solution is an enterprise solution for digital content sites that perform tens-of-thousands to hundreds-of-thousands of transactions per day.

More information is available on the Bitmunk Sales Cluster Solution product page.

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