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Re: An accounting question...

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Chih-Hung Feng (791018) wrote:
> 
> Hi:
> 
>     Could someone enlighten me on the following question?
> 
>     A local company(not the one I am employed) is thinking about
> providing database service on the net. The idea is put a database
> on the Internet and allow users to extract the information through
> WWW interface. The requirements are:
> 
>     1.  the users must identify themselves before viewing the
>         document,  and
>     2.  the users are charged with the quantity of information
>         (pieces of documents/Mbytes/etc) being received.
> 
>     The first req. can be easily satisfied, but the second really
> beats me. How can I identify those requests from a valid user who
> has successfully passed earlier I&A stage? How can I make sure these
> requests are from that user, while someone else can be using his
> system at the same time?
> 
>     If what I described is too vague to understand, please tell
> me and I would like to give more details. Any ideas (even that
> you think it is impossible based on current web server behavior)
> would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.
> 
> --
>    Chih-Hung Feng <chfeng@iii.org.tw>

Although I don't know if web server technology has advanced to a 
level of security where you are ensured that uploads charged to a 
subscriber can be documented to prevent dispute of charges, there is 
a major newspaper in the states which charges subscribers a flat fee 
for each article uploaded in their news database.  The San Jose 
Mercury News ``News Library'' site (in San Jose, California) maybe 
helpful to you in modelling a potential solution:

http://spyglass.sjmercury.com/library/

Also, secured server http protocol, which is used by the banks and 
others for transmitting secured data over the world wide web, maybe 
also of value.  Good luck.

Gene

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