Google’s Schmidt and Brin on paid content

In a joint speech Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder and Eric Schmidt, its CEO adresses several hotly debated topics in a 90 minute news conference. Among these subjects were paid online content and the book scanning project.

“On paid content models online: Schmidt: “There is clearly a market for free content, and that market is the size of the Internet. There is clearly a market for subscription content- — meaning per-view or per-month payments — and it’s clear there are also going to be very expensive negotiated transactions for high-value content.”

He said it is similar to broadcast television, cable television and pay-per-view. “The size of those markets are correspondingly different. So when we argue over this, we’re not arguing about the principle. We’re arguing over the size of the market.”

“We are working on payment systems and subscription models to enable those other tiers,” Mr. Schmidt added. Content owners will not set the price. “Everyone is familiar with this problem in selling your house. We’re not going to use the price you suggest,” he said.”

via Google’s Schmidt and Brin on Books, Culture and Evil-ness – Digits – WSJ.