Not every author is going to have the tech-savviness to set up his own website and payment network. I can attest to this from personal experience -- prior to law school, I was the second employee of a company, BigTent, whose mission is to give trusted community groups (local parenting, social, hobby, etc. groups) an all-in-one set of tools to organize and strengthen their groups online (think: Yahoo on steroids). We had so many hurdles in user adoption. We catered to an older demographic that didn't grow up with computers and Internet access. As a result, we had to deal with an enormous information gap in getting our customers comfortable with and/or excited about learning new technology. Group leaders wanted to spend their precious spare time connecting with their group members, not worrying about the nuts and bolts of a new communication system. We touted our privacy controls, our 256-bit encryption on every page, our dedication to not broadcasting sensitive information in Facebook newsfeeds; a few appreciated these deliberate choices, but most focused on the end results of implementing the technology (i.e., will I have a more meaningful connection with my group?), and not the means of getting there.

2. Many of our class discussions have focused on the consequences of centralizing data in for-profit networks such as Facebook. I wanted to play out a hypothetical situation where Amazon centralized enough eBook data to raise antitrust concerns.

3. I want to assess: what is a pragmatic option for an aspiring author in the 21st century to share his creative works and make an honest living doing so? I'm not saying that an author's primary motivation is making money, but it is still a motivation. Creators still have to eat. So from that perspective, I want to explore how new mechanisms of self-publishing pose both benefits and risks to authors, to readers, and to Internet society at large.

I'll take a stab at revising soon.