1. A method for raising capital through the conditional sale of investments online, wherein each investment provides an owner with a financial interest in an entity that (i) produces, develops, provides or has a financial interest in a specified good, service, event, achievement or venture; or (ii) commits to produce, develop, provide or gain a financial interest in the good, service, event, achievement, or venture, the method comprising:
- providing a network site accessible over a communication network from remote computers;
- receiving, from a seller of the investments, pre-defined criteria that must be satisfied before the seller or entity is obligated to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture, wherein the pre-defined criteria includes an aggregate threshold volume of conditional purchases that must be made by a plurality of different buyers for the investments;
- displaying commercial terms relating to making a conditional purchase of at least one of the investments, to the buyers over the network site, wherein the commercial terms include one or more seller-defined prices associated with the conditional purchase;
- receiving conditional purchase requests for at least one of the investments, from the plurality of buyers over the network site, each of said conditional purchase requests including credit or debit account information from a buyer and specifying a conditional purchase amount that includes at least one of the seller-defined prices, and in response to each conditional purchase request, executing an authorize-only credit or debit transaction using credit or debit account information from the buyer, wherein the authorize-only credit or debit transaction conditionally binds the buyer to make a purchase associated with at least one of the investments only upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria; and
- upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, automatically charging a credit or debit account of each buyer that made one of said conditional purchase requests, and obligating the seller or entity to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture; and
- wherein the conditional purchase amounts specified in the conditional purchase requests include seller-defined prices that are independent of an aggregate volume of conditional purchases made by the buyers.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein upon satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, the entity is obligated to make content available to each buyer in exchange for the conditional purchase during a time period following satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, wherein the content conveys information related to production or development activities for the good, service, event, achievement, or venture.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein upon satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, the entity is further obligated to provide a product to each buyer in exchange for the conditional purchase during a time period following satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, wherein the product relates to the good, service, event, achievement, or venture.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining, by the seller, a period for a buyer to conditionally purchase at least one of the investments over the network site.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein, after the credit or debit account of a buyer is charged, the buyer is issued a receipt confirming the purchase of at least one of the investments.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the seller offers to conditionally sell a plurality of investments, each content item having its own pre-defined criteria, the seller becoming bound to issue only those investments that achieve the pre-defined criteria.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing for a secure area of the network site, the secure area including a private account page accessible by a seller that has created an account with the network site.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the seller may view, within the secure area, information updated to reflect the completion of a transaction.
9. The method of claim 7 wherein the seller may view the status of the progress toward satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria on the vendor's private account page.
10. The method of claim 7 wherein the seller may create a listing of information for new investments on a new page accessible by the seller from the seller's private account page.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein a secure area of the network site is accessed for entering credit or debit account information in order to make a conditional purchase request, the method further comprising transmitting the credit or debit account information to a credit or debit account company over the network.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising accessing the secure area of the website, the secure area permitting the buyer to create an account page.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the completion of a purchase transaction is confirmed on the buyer's account page.
14. The method of claim 12 wherein the buyer may view the status of the progress toward satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria for an investment of interest on the buyer's account page, but only to the extent permitted by the seller.
15. The method of claim 2, wherein the buyer receives the content online through an area of the network site associated with the content on the network site or through a cable, satellite, or other digital network.
16. The method of claim 2, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising an artistic work, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the artistic work to produce the artistic work.
17. The method of claim 2, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising a non-fiction work, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the non-fiction work to produce the non-fiction work.
18. The method of claim 2, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising an interactive video game, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the video game to produce the video game.
19. The method of claim 2, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising a comic book, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the comic book to produce the comic book.
20. A system for raising capital through the conditional sale of investments online, wherein each investment provides an owner with a financial interest in an entity that (i) produces, develops, provides or has a financial interest in a specified good, service, event, achievement or venture; or (ii) commits to produce, develop, provide or gain a financial interest in the good, service, event, achievement, or venture, the system comprising:
- a network site accessible over a communication network from remote computers;
- means for receiving, from a seller of the investments, pre-defined criteria that must be satisfied before the seller or entity is obligated to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture; wherein the pre-defined criteria is an aggregate threshold volume of conditional purchases that must be made by a plurality of different buyers for the investments;
- means for displaying commercial terms relating to making a conditional purchase for at least one of the investments, event, product or service, to the buyers over the network site, wherein the commercial terms include one or more seller-defined prices associated with the conditional purchase;
- means for receiving conditional purchase requests for at least one of the investments, from the plurality of buyers over the network site, each of said conditional purchase requests including credit or debit account information from a buyer and specifying a conditional purchase amount that includes at least one of the seller-defined prices;
- means, responsive to each conditional purchase request, for executing an authorize-only credit or debit transaction using credit or debit account information from the buyer, wherein the authorize-only credit or debit transaction conditionally binds the buyer to make a purchase associated with at least one of the investments only upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria; and
- means, responsive to the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, for automatically charging a credit or debit account of each buyer that made one of said conditional purchase requests and obligating the seller or entity to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture; and
- wherein the conditional purchase amounts specified in the conditional purchase requests include seller-defined prices that are independent of an aggregate volume of conditional purchases made by the buyers.
21. The system of claim 20, further comprising, means for defining, by the seller, a period for a buyer to make a purchase of at least one of the investments over the network site.
22. The system of claim 20, wherein upon satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, the entity is obligated to make content available to each buyer in exchange for the conditional purchase during a time period following satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, wherein the content conveys information related to production or development activities for the good, service, event, achievement, or venture, and, further comprising means for issuing a ticket for the event to a buyer after the credit or debit account of the buyer is charged.
23. The system of claim 20 further comprising means for issuing a receipt confirmation for at least one of the investments to a buyer after the credit or debit account of the buyer is charged.
24. The system of claim 20 further comprising means for monitoring the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria and displaying information relating to the pre-defined criteria over a private account page.
25. The system of claim 22, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising an artistic work, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the artistic work to produce the artistic work.
26. The system of claim 22, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising a non-fiction work, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the non-fiction work to produce the non-fiction work.
27. The system of claim 22, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising an interactive video game, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the video game to produce the video game.
28. The system of claim 22, wherein the production or development activities concern production or development of a product comprising a comic book, and the content corresponds to efforts of a creator of the comic book to produce the comic book.
29. The system of claim 20, wherein upon satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, the entity is further obligated to provide a product, other than the investment, to each buyer in exchange for the conditional purchase during a time period following satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, wherein the product relates to the good, service, event, achievement, or venture.
30. A computer useable medium and computer readable code embodied on the computer useable medium for raising capital through the conditional sale of investments online, wherein each investment provides an owner with a financial interest in an entity that (i) produces, develops, provides or has a financial interest in a specified good, service, event, achievement or venture; or (ii) commits to produce, develop, provide or gain a financial interest in the good, service, event, achievement, or venture, the computer readable code comprising code which, when executed by a processor, performs the following steps:
- providing a network site accessible over a communication network from remote computers;
- receiving, from a seller of the investments, pre-defined criteria that must be satisfied before the seller or entity is obligated to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture, wherein the pre-defined criteria is an aggregate threshold volume of conditional purchases that must be made by a plurality of different buyers for at least one of the investments;
- displaying commercial terms relating to making a conditional purchase for at least one of the investments to the buyers over the network site, wherein the commercial terms include one or more seller-defined prices associated with the conditional purchase;
- receiving conditional purchase requests for at least one of the investments from the plurality of buyers over the network site, each of said conditional purchase requests including credit or debit account information from a buyer and specifying a conditional purchase amount that includes at least one of the seller-defined prices, and in response to each conditional purchase request, executing an authorize-only credit or debit transaction using credit or debit account information from the buyer, wherein the authorize-only credit or debit transaction conditionally binds the buyer to make a purchase associated with the at least one of the investments only upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria; and
- upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria, automatically charging a credit or debit account of each buyer that made one of said conditional purchase requests and obligating the seller or entity to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture; and
- wherein the conditional purchase amounts specified in the conditional purchase requests include seller-defined prices that are independent of an aggregate volume of conditional purchases made by the buyers.
31. The computer useable medium and computer readable code of claim 30 wherein a buyer has a seller-defined period to purchase at least one of the investments over the network site.
32. The computer useable medium and computer readable code of claim 30 further comprising computer useable medium and computer readable code for monitoring the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria.
33. A method for raising capital through the conditional sale of investments online, wherein each investment provides an owner with a financial interest in an entity that (i) produces, develops, provides or has a financial interest in a specified good, service, event, achievement or venture; or (ii) commits to produce, develop, provide or gain a financial interest in the good, service, event, achievement, or venture, the method comprising:
- providing a network site accessible over a communication network from remote computers;
- receiving, from a seller of the investments, pre-defined criteria that must be satisfied before the seller or entity is obligated to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture, wherein the pre-defined criteria is an aggregate threshold volume of conditional purchases that must be made by a plurality of different buyers for at least one of the investments; the seller or entity having an option to agree to cause the good, service, event, achievement or venture to be developed or produced even though the pre-defined criteria have not been satisfied;
- displaying commercial terms relating to making a conditional purchase for at least the investments to the buyers over the network site, wherein the commercial terms include one or more seller-defined prices associated with the conditional purchase;
- receiving conditional purchase requests for at least one of the investments from the plurality of buyers over the network site, each of said conditional purchase requests including credit or debit account information from a buyer and specifying a conditional purchase amount that includes at least one of the seller-defined prices, and in response to each conditional purchase request, executing an authorize-only credit or debit transaction using credit or debit account information from the buyer, wherein the authorize-only credit or debit transaction conditionally binds the buyer to make a purchase associated with at least one of the investments only upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria or upon the seller or entity exercising the option; and
- upon the vendor exercising the option, automatically charging a credit or debit account of each buyer that made one of said conditional purchase requests and obligating the seller or entity to produce or develop the good, service, event, achievement or venture; and
- wherein the conditional purchase amounts specified in the conditional purchase requests include seller-defined prices that are independent of an aggregate volume of conditional purchases made by the buyers.
34. A method for raising capital through the conditional sale of investments online, wherein each investment provides an owner with a financial interest in an entity that (i) produces, develops, provides or has a financial interest in a specified good, service, event, achievement or venture; or (ii) commits to produce, develop, provide or gain a financial interest in the good, service, event, achievement, or venture, the method comprising:
- providing a network site accessible over a communication network from remote computers;
- receiving, from a seller of investments, a plurality of linked goods, services, events, achievements or ventures and, pre-defined criteria that must be satisfied before the seller or entity is obligated to cause a subset of the plurality of linked goods, services, events, achievements or ventures to be produced, wherein the pre-defined criteria specify buyer demand parameters that determine which, if any, of the subset of the plurality of linked goods, services, events, achievements or ventures that the seller or entity is obligated to cause to be produced; wherein the subset includes less than all of the plurality of linked goods, services, events, achievements or ventures;
- displaying commercial terms relating to making a conditional purchase for one of the investments to the buyers over the network site;
- receiving conditional purchase requests for each of the investments from the plurality of buyers over the network site, each of said conditional purchase requests being associated with one of the linked goods, services, events, achievements or ventures, each of said conditional purchase requests including credit or debit account information from a buyer and specifying a conditional purchase amount, and in response to each conditional purchase request, executing an authorize-only credit or debit transaction using credit or debit account information from the buyer, wherein the authorize-only credit or debit transaction conditionally binds the buyer to make a purchase for one of the investments only upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria for the linked goods, services, events, achievements or ventures associated with the conditional purchase of the buyer; and
- upon the satisfaction of the pre-defined criteria associated with each linked good, service, event, achievement and/or venture in the subset, automatically charging a credit or debit account of each buyer that made one of said conditional purchase requests associated with each linked good, service, event, achievement or venture in the subset, and obligating the seller or entity to cause each linked good, service, event, achievement or venture in the subset to be produced.
