DIGITAL ASSUMPTIONS How Digital Resources Are Expanding Personal Opportunities
As we create an online community that centers around digital resources, we believe that there are certain core elements that we must hold to in the process. With a great deal of misunderstanding and even blatant disregard for copyright laws, we want to go out of our way to articulate our self-prescribed, digital code of honor and beliefs.
1. We choose to honor the creative source by helping them achieve their desired outcome. For some, this may mean a financial return where many others may be just looking for a great degree of exposure.
2. We choose to honor the environment. We do not see the need to continue to produce as many products that require the use of natural resources. Although paper, plastic, and fuel (for deliveries) will always be needed within our society, we believe that we can drastically reduce our impact upon God?s creation by utilizing digital technology.
3. We choose to honor the individual choice of our customers. With the shift from paper and plastic toward digital resources, users can now choose what they want to purchase and how they want to purchase it much easier. Instead of purchasing the entire CD, they can just purchase the songs that connect with their needs. Instead of waiting for a book or CD to be delivered, our users will be able to receive their product instantly via digital download. This shift will allow us to pass along a significant savings to all users.
4. We believe that self-expression and creativity will drive production above and beyond mere distribution. Although a CD or a book may not sell millions of copies through traditional distribution, we believe that there is validity in offering for creative purposes. With the vast expanse of the web, a book will never have to go out of print, and an artist will never be told ?no? because of poor sales projections.
5. We believe that the new economy will not flourish with the digital nuisances of high-powered control and user-end gymnastics. People will constantly be coming up with ways to ?get around? the system, and we believe that we have to find a way to create a community that provides a tremendous amount of value and service. In no way do we believe that users should ?pirate? products at the expense of the creator or other companies, but we do not wish to hassle our users with ?digital hoops? to jump through on a regular basis.
6. We believe that there will be multiple levels of quality based on the open gate of distribution that the Internet provides. Rather than creating a highly restrictive environment, we will choose to let users become the judges of quality on a horizontal level.
7. We believe that exclusivity is a tool to command and control a market segment and the consumer. In the end, exclusivity does not help the end-user or the creative.
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