> He had no idea whether it would work when he set up the relationship so he was taking a risk and she wasn't. His risk paid off.
And was she taking no risk either? She risked non-payment just as he risked non-delivery. Even if she didn't specifically take a few minutes/hours/days to make the cards, if we grant that the bingo cards have value as intellectual property, then she must be risking it by sending them to him.
More to the point, does taking a risk justify perpetual profit? Should an author profit forever from a book? Patents never expire?
> Should the fee be renegotiated whenever he finds (or more likely, creates) more value?
If she signed a long-term contract, then she could keep it. But it sounds like she really is free-lance/at-will, and a renegotiation could happen every time, sure.
> Should he also pay higher hosting fees, and maybe more for his domain because now it's worth more?
Again, why not? Such fees or taxes are common; consider property taxes. What are they but a 'higher fee' because some piece of land is 'worth more'?
It's not the same as property tax, because she's not a government and the power bases are quite different. Governments can get away with it because the switching cost of moving to another country or state is just too high, and they have all the power in the relationship so can charge what they like. That's the abuse, if you're looking for it. Switching costs of bingo card writers is very low. Nonetheless, he's voluntarily paid more than he could have.
There's very little IP value in bingo cards. It's a collection of words for SEO value. You could swap them out with another collection and you'd have a similar result.
And was she taking no risk either? She risked non-payment just as he risked non-delivery. Even if she didn't specifically take a few minutes/hours/days to make the cards, if we grant that the bingo cards have value as intellectual property, then she must be risking it by sending them to him.
More to the point, does taking a risk justify perpetual profit? Should an author profit forever from a book? Patents never expire?
> Should the fee be renegotiated whenever he finds (or more likely, creates) more value?
If she signed a long-term contract, then she could keep it. But it sounds like she really is free-lance/at-will, and a renegotiation could happen every time, sure.
> Should he also pay higher hosting fees, and maybe more for his domain because now it's worth more?
Again, why not? Such fees or taxes are common; consider property taxes. What are they but a 'higher fee' because some piece of land is 'worth more'?