Re: Lap Dances for All

[dan () geer org]

I refer all to the idea of a "recursive auction"
wherein for content which cannot be effectively
owned the question is instead the control of its
spread.  In a recursive auction the item is first
auctioned to the highest bidder, that is the content
is revealed to the highest bidder, but a second
auction is immediately started to resell that same
content in exactly the same way as the first.  In
this way, the right to view the content achieves its
market value based both on the value of the content,
per se, and the value of X seeing it before Y.  For
X to allow no one to see it requires X to outbid all
others at each subsequent auction, which occur at
finite intervals.  All income comes to the provider
of the content except that any holder of the content
may also undertake an auction to sell a copy as
after receiving that copy his rights are to do with
it as he will, including re-sell.  Those who work in
finance will recognize the glimmer of this idea in
the price differential between slow, fast, and
blazing market data feeds.

The idea comes from Eric Hughes, if I recall
correctly, who called it a "digital piracy auction"
and dates to somewhere like 1995.  See Bob
Hettinga's various rants, e.g. [1,2], to whet your
appetite.  Frankly, vulnerabilities strike me as
far, far more interesting fodder for a recursive
auction than the latest pop star's euphemistic lust
set to "music."

--dan

[1]
http://tedanderson.home.mindspring.com/RecursiveAuctionMarket.txt

[2]
http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/cyberia-l/msg42394.html

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