[10806] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Billing on the net (was Re: Internet vs Minitel)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Karl Denninger)
Thu Mar 10 07:33:02 1994
From: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
To: fidelman@civicnet.org (Miles R Fidelman)
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 01:38:57 -0600 (CST)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9403090627.A28595-0100000@world.std.com> from "Miles R Fidelman" at Mar 9, 94 06:34:18 am
> On Tue, 8 Mar 1994, Glenn S. Tenney wrote:
>
> > Unfortunately, Miles, "you don't get it" :-) ... Being able to get a
> > credit card number over the net does nothing for the small information
> > provider. Have you ever tried to establish a merchant's credit card
> > account with your bank? I suggest that you do so... My company has two
> > corporate accounts at a large bank, have been with this large bank for
> > about nine years, and was told "You can apply for a merchant account if you
> > want to, but WITHOUT A STORE FRONT, WE DON'T SAY YES." Besides, getting a
>
> Actually - yes, without a store front, and successfully, but that's
> another story :)
Oh, it is possible. You have to find the right bank, and the right relationship,
and demonstrate that you're not a scumbag, not necessarily in that order, but you
CAN get VISA/MC access as a small provider.
I know -- I just did it. It is NOT easy, and takes good business and negotiation
skills. But it can be done. If you have zero assets in the company and are playing
"shoestring company" you're going to have serious trouble -- especially if the
principles of the company don't have much of a credit history or assets.
I will say this -- if I had a 9 year relationship with a bank and they said "no" it
would be time to find another bank. I would make that quite clear to the President
of said bank. There is lots of competition out there -- someone will give you the
merchant access, especially with a 9-year history!
> > Now, if you had suggested that all telecom providers be required to handle
> > the billing (the way the telcos do [or did] for 976 numbers), then you'd
> > have a solution that would work and support small information providers.
>
> Of course another would be if someone set up a third party
> clearinghouse. I have one account with someone who resells other
> people's information services or acts as a billing consolidator. Doesn't
> have to be the telcos. Again, cryptography is an enabling requirement -
> kerberos would work pretty well in such an environment.
Not really. Kerberos doesn't solve the theft-of-seed-key problem, which is VERY
serious. What does solve it is secure DES boxes such as CYLINK makes for exactly
this kind of purpose.
--
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Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.COM) | MCSNet - Full Internet Connectivity (shell,
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