A Share-Fare is an unlimited content distribution license for a set of one or more copyrighted works, paid for on a periodic subscription basis.

Share-Fare is also a business model currently in very early planning stages. The model is designed to bridge the gap between failing traditional models of copyright and newer Internet-based methods of content distribution that implement a viable means of compensating creators.

At it's heart, Share-Fare is a subscription-based dynamic DNS service, not unlike many others found online. Each subscriber is assigned a domain name of their choice: "[username].share-fare.net", which resolves to a single public IP address of their choice using any number of commonly-available dynamic DNS update utilities. This address is then authorized to distribute any copyrighted work in the subscriber's portfolio, using any protocol or application the subscriber likes.

Individual tracks, albums, entire artist or even label catalogs can be added or removed from a subscriber's portfolio. Each item in a subscriber's portfolio carries a separate subscription cost set by the copyright holder, which can be charged monthly, quarterly, or yearly to the subscriber's credit card. After taking a small service fee to support operating costs, The subscription fees are sent straight to the artist.

Share-Fare doesn't even try to lock up your what you paid for behind some hare-brained Digital Rights Management scam. Make all the backups you want. Rip and re-encode your portfolio to any other format you want. Put it on any device you want. Send out all the copies you want, to anyone you want. That's the right you're paying for when you buy a Share-Fare.

(note, however, that content providers are more than capable of encrusting content with DRM anyway. Share-fare in no way attempts to enforce this, however. If we find someone sharing participating content, whether DRM'ed or DRM-free, our response is the same. It's our hope that Share-fare is a force that eliminates the motive to use DRM - which plainly doesn't obstruct infringement while frustrating honest customers)

Share-Fare does not favor any particular sharing application or protocol. Use Gnutella, Bittorrent, eDonkey. Put it up on a website or an ftp server, or even over IRC. Share-Fare is forward-compatible with new applications and protocols that haven't even been invented yet! Share-Fare supports open innovation, instead of lock-in and incompatibility. Share-Fare also keeps existing file sharing networks legal by providing them with a substantial non-infringing use.

Share-Fare does not install spyware on your machine, and does not make your computer vulnerable to malware. You do not need to install any software at all in order to use Share-Fare if you prefer not to. All you'll need to do is log into a special page on our website to update your IP. Optionally, you can install most any dynamic DNS update client. These applications are very simple, which makes them more secure, and there are plenty of spyware-free Free Software implementations to choose from.

Share-Fare promotes artists by letting fans do what they want, which just happens to be what artists want them to do as well. Because fans are more than willing able to do the distribution over the Internet, artists don't have to worry about big bandwidth bills.

No. A decade of Internet sharing has shown that nothing can stop it. Share-Fare starts by assuming you're going to do it anyway, so we simply build that into the price of the subscription.

A Share-Fare has a limited lifetime that expires in a month, a quarter, or year. You are entitled to keep any tracks you download after your Share-Fare expires, but sharing requires that your Share-Fare subscription remain active. Over time, we think the persistent desire to share the music you like will more than make up for charging more up front.

Share-Fare's model resembles a music "rental" service than selling music as a product. When you compare Share-Fare to other online music stores more closely, however, it becomes apparent that the restrictive DRM they use actually means you're renting your music from them, too. We're simply honest about it.

Share-Fare scans the Internet looking for people sharing media by participating artists, just like other rights organizations do. When we find someone sharing participating works on an IP that doesn't match any of our subscriber IPs, we contact the ISP that owns that address. Instead of threatening to sue their customer, however, we offer them a Share-Fare subscription for the titles they're already sharing.

Ultimately, we do have the right to begin litigation if the unlicensed sharing continues, but it's pretty obvious that paying a small fee to continue sharing is enormously preferable to a several thousand dollar lawsuit! We think that both ISPs and the sharing public would look very favorably on such a compromise.

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