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Ask a question about: Napster
Respond to the question: Evaluate my new ebusiness idea?

10/21/2004 08:12 PM by name withheld;
this doesn't make sense, copying keys to cars does not make a duplicate of the car. copying music does not steal the original music from the owner [View full text and thread]

02/22/2001 10:12 PM by David Levine for Doug Bennett; Evaluate my new e-business idea....

Keyster (Our slogan: Save your keister with key-ster!)


Sometimes you lock your keys in your car, or you are right near a friends car who you KNOW wouldn't mind if you borrow their car, except you don't have their key. KEYSTER to the rescue! Just use our Keyster browser: Enter the licence plate number of the car with your celluar phone's keypad. Through the miracle of Keyster technology, a key will be teleported to your location. Open the car up, and off you go!


Keyster users decide what keys to make available to others using the Keyster browser, and what content to download. Don't worry about this too much as some people with less scruples than you will make available every key for every car made by GM, Ford, Toyota... all the big car companies. Our service is a GODSEND to small car companies: A lot of people will borrow keys to those cars and drive around. People will see the new car and say "Hey, that's a great little Yugo. I wanna buy me one o' them".

Keyster respects property law and expects our users to do the same. Unauthorized driving away of someone else's car is an infringement of their rights. As a condition to your account with Keyster, you agree that you will not use the Keyster service to infringe the property rights of others
in any way (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

There is another business out there with an idea similar to mine. That business claims that my idea is completely different than theirs for they offer a product that is non-rivalrous in consumption; that is, both you and I can use the product without affecting the other, whereas if I am driving your car, you cannot simultaneously be driving your car. I claim that this distinction is immaterial: In both cases the owners of the property clearly have right to it. In both cases the owners of the property have given our respective customers permission to use it. That's it. What more could you ask for?

Both that other business and I agree it would be really, really bad if people abused our services to use things without permission. We both ask our customers not to do that. I mean it. We're serious. You guys promise. I mean cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die promise. I mean its-a-violation-of-federal-law-but-there-are-millions-of-you-stealing-and-so-you-are-hard-to-catch promise.
Do you promise?

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