Joe Wikert's DisruptorFest

ReDigi patents a "copy-less" digital content resale model

I love the concept of reselling your digital assets. Bought a bunch of songs you no longer care for? Resell them. Ebooks you've read and have no use for? Resell them. The used CD and bookstore model that works in the physical world will definitely be a vibrant component of the digital content world. 

I've written about ReDigi before and today these pioneers of digital content resale have some terrific news to report: theyv'e been awarded a patent for their unique method of "copy-less" digital content resale. You can read the whole press release here but this is the key excerpt:

ReDigi’s patented technology provides significant opportunities to unlock the full value of digital content by creating a system and method for the resale of that content without actually having to make a copy.

Selling "used" digital content is a tricky concept for some people to accept. After all, an MP3 or an ebook can be copied endlessly, so how can there be a single version of it that can be sold by me and bought by you?

I believe ReDigi has the answer to that question and, more importantly, we'll all be reselling and buying much of our digital content through ReDigi (or ReDigi-powered services).

My biggest hope now is that someone like Amazon doesn't come along and swoop these guys up. After all, reselling digital content shouldn't be locked into a walled garden.

Are recommended reading lists worth paying for?

We’re sinking in a sea of content. It’s impossible to keep up. Even very narrow, niche-oriented topics seem to have an endless supply of new content produced about them every day.

How do you keep up? If you’re like me you have your regular list of sites to visit, RSS feeds to scan, tweets to keep up on, etc. I’m convinced I’m still missing key articles and stories that should be on my radar but aren’t.

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Is your content in all the high visibility areas?

What’s your strategy to get your content discovered and read? Most publishers follow the “if you build it, they will come” philosophy. Many of those same publishers won’t be around in a few years.

I used to be a publisher so I have some credibility when I say this: When it comes to their content, most publishers tend to be arrogant. They build their websites, use their preferred social media tools and assume consumers simply can’t wait to see the next article, book or post they have to offer.

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Measuring the negative impact of Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Still think DRM is good for IP owners? Have you bought into all the fear, uncertainty and doubt to believe DRM protects sales by keeping freeloaders away from your content?

If so, I’ve got a report you need to read. It’s one that came out late last year but didn’t get a lot of publicity.

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Stretching a brand from print to digital

Can it really be done? Can you take a brand that’s well established in the print world and move it to digital?

You might think that’s a silly question as it’s already been done many times. I’ll bet you can rattle off quite a few print brands that have made the jump to digital. But have these print-to-digital brands really been successful? Have they truly maximized their reach and revenue potential? Or have they actually diluted the original print brand? Would they have been better off doing something else instead of stretching the original brand from print to digital?

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