I have way too many projects started - much more than i can handle. As a result - I am working 20 hours a day and still broke. I decided to try selling some of my unfinished projects to support those that more interesting to me.
Whar i would like to know:
1. Does this idea have a chance?
2. Does it have a chance to be sold "as-is'?
3. How much do you think it is worth and where is "the place" to look for potencial buyer?
_________________________________________
My idea’s overview:
to provide a secure file depository with certification from "legal witness" (public notary).
Purpose:
This will be a complementary services to U.S. Copyright registration, which will satisfy (I think) most of people's needs for securing their authorship. This service will be less restrictive/faster/cheaper, than official copyright registration. Anyone who will pay a reasonable fee of $10-15, will receive a "copyright certificate", which could be posted on author's website. In case someone attempts to "steal" author's work and the author decides to take legal actions, it will be up to court to determine who is the "real" author. From our part we will provide a legal proof that someone who identified himself as "author" submitted to us this file on certain date. In my opinion this proof will be crucial in resolving this matter because most likely the one who will be accused of stealing this artwork won’t have any proof.
An interesting thing that if you google the term "copyright certificate" , it returns 62,400,000 results, while searching through government sites returnd zero results. I learned that there is no legal term such as 'copyright certificate' or "copyright declaration". The legal term, used by officials is 'copyright registration'.
This fact allows obtaining a TM or SM, because the service I described above totally qualifies for it. I researched U.S. Trademark Database for trademark's availability and found that both terms’ SM and TM are available. (TM) will allow providing "Official Copyright Certificate" or "Official Copyright Declaration" services (notary certified and protected by ‘trademarked’ service).
Since trademark rights are gained by actual use of a mark, rather than by registration, I purchased two domain names (copyrightcertificate.com , copyrightdeclaration.com), created web site prototype, and 'certified' half-dozen sites, belonging to my friends & customers.
You can see examples at hostingcompared.com (at the bottom) or danielphoto.com (click on 'digital' certificate).
There are many optional services, that could be offered to visitors (domain registration, hosting etc). Some of them are listed on current site.
Both domains will be providing identical services: one will be a paid service, advertising free. Another will give a 'free certificate' with a little 'extra', like ‘embedded’ Adword ad. I think that both sites have a chance to become popular pretty fast, because ‘certified’ sites will be linking back to us for certificate/declaration verification.
This biz won't need any dedicated servers and could be run from shared hosting
Recurring expenses:
Hosting $120 per year | 5GB of space (more than enough, since all submitted files will be downloaded once a week to DVD , certified and archived.)
SLL Certificate: $45 per year
One time expenses:
DVD burner + blank dvd: $40;
Public Notary license: $100 / 1 day course;
This is an absolute minimum: administrator will be using current site and paypal to process payments. Certificates will be created manually, using photoshop
Optional :
$1000-1500 will cover the development of fully automatic solution, which will generate certificates automatically, after processing the payment through merchant gateway
So what do you think? I will really appreciate any opinions.
Whar i would like to know:
1. Does this idea have a chance?
2. Does it have a chance to be sold "as-is'?
3. How much do you think it is worth and where is "the place" to look for potencial buyer?
_________________________________________
My idea’s overview:
to provide a secure file depository with certification from "legal witness" (public notary).
Purpose:
This will be a complementary services to U.S. Copyright registration, which will satisfy (I think) most of people's needs for securing their authorship. This service will be less restrictive/faster/cheaper, than official copyright registration. Anyone who will pay a reasonable fee of $10-15, will receive a "copyright certificate", which could be posted on author's website. In case someone attempts to "steal" author's work and the author decides to take legal actions, it will be up to court to determine who is the "real" author. From our part we will provide a legal proof that someone who identified himself as "author" submitted to us this file on certain date. In my opinion this proof will be crucial in resolving this matter because most likely the one who will be accused of stealing this artwork won’t have any proof.
An interesting thing that if you google the term "copyright certificate" , it returns 62,400,000 results, while searching through government sites returnd zero results. I learned that there is no legal term such as 'copyright certificate' or "copyright declaration". The legal term, used by officials is 'copyright registration'.
This fact allows obtaining a TM or SM, because the service I described above totally qualifies for it. I researched U.S. Trademark Database for trademark's availability and found that both terms’ SM and TM are available. (TM) will allow providing "Official Copyright Certificate" or "Official Copyright Declaration" services (notary certified and protected by ‘trademarked’ service).
Since trademark rights are gained by actual use of a mark, rather than by registration, I purchased two domain names (copyrightcertificate.com , copyrightdeclaration.com), created web site prototype, and 'certified' half-dozen sites, belonging to my friends & customers.
You can see examples at hostingcompared.com (at the bottom) or danielphoto.com (click on 'digital' certificate).
There are many optional services, that could be offered to visitors (domain registration, hosting etc). Some of them are listed on current site.
Both domains will be providing identical services: one will be a paid service, advertising free. Another will give a 'free certificate' with a little 'extra', like ‘embedded’ Adword ad. I think that both sites have a chance to become popular pretty fast, because ‘certified’ sites will be linking back to us for certificate/declaration verification.
This biz won't need any dedicated servers and could be run from shared hosting
Recurring expenses:
Hosting $120 per year | 5GB of space (more than enough, since all submitted files will be downloaded once a week to DVD , certified and archived.)
SLL Certificate: $45 per year
One time expenses:
DVD burner + blank dvd: $40;
Public Notary license: $100 / 1 day course;
This is an absolute minimum: administrator will be using current site and paypal to process payments. Certificates will be created manually, using photoshop
Optional :
$1000-1500 will cover the development of fully automatic solution, which will generate certificates automatically, after processing the payment through merchant gateway
So what do you think? I will really appreciate any opinions.
