IP payment

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When IP-payment or IP billing is a form of payment for paid content in the Internet , which the provider is billed. The user is identified by his IP address . In contrast to the dialer , this system can therefore also be used with DSL or other broadband access .

functionality

If a user visits a website with a paid offer that is to be billed via IP payment, the website operator saves the IP address of the user as well as the date and the exact time. Cooperation with the provider is required to determine the user from this data. This usually also takes on the billing.

providers

As of spring 2005, the Austrian Montax Payment Service GmbH was the first provider to allow IP payment in cooperation with most of the larger local providers. In December 2005, Deutsche Telekom launched a similar system with T-Pay . Both providers have discontinued their IP payment services.

advantages and disadvantages

The advantage of IP payment is that, unlike dialers, it works with every Internet connection, as no new dial-in under a chargeable number is required, which is impossible with broadband access. The only restriction is access where several users share a public IP using NAT ; here it is not possible to clearly assign the IP to a customer. Another advantage is that any amount can be billed and there are no upper restrictions imposed by the regulatory authorities, as is the case with dialers, and the expense of billing cents exceeds their benefit.

The disadvantage of the system is the lack of an effective means of checking whether the user in question has actually knowingly visited the site. For example, the user can be directed to chargeable pages without his intervention. By Trojans more complex user actions that might artificially imitated without then to be distinguishable even from a knowingly Navigating through. It is also legally unclear whether the identification of a user by his IP address is sufficient to prove the conclusion of a contract . For example, the owner of the internet access does not have to be used if several people share access.

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