Thinking a lot about copyright lately.

Hank Williams got me started with this. SAI continued that conversation.

Darren Herman fuels the fire here.

Where my head is at? I’m working over some thoughts how Google PageRank gave copyright holders of online content value when others used portions of their content. Link blogging, summary posts (like this one,) and other deep linking activities gave something back to the creators of the content - search traffic.

As the world gets more connected will similar exchanges in value start to happen with music and video? Could a more connected music device point people back to info on where a musician is playing and potentially sell them a ticket while they listen to a free track on their device? Is there something here? I’m not sure. Need to chew on it some more. Is there a currency that helps bands with more digital downloads get a direct link to monetization possibilities?

New Liquidity Model for Internet Companies

Great post by Fred Wilson on Silicon Alley Insider today.  Interesting to see a VC look at the market through the two lenses - the investor that can make tremendous profits off the M&A activity of the major media companies and the personal Internet user that lives with the inferior services these acquisitions make.

Wilson talks about the biggest players in the Internet sector’s desire to roll everything up into one master service.  Yet people seem to gravitate toward variety and diversity.

But advertisers demand scale.  Publishers grow by having more to sell.

Lots of options designed to please passionate collections of users and a publisher that allows this diverse group of media entrepreneurs to earn a good living of their work without becoming a cog in the giant wheel.  Hmmmm.  Sounds familiar…

Conversational Media in Action

I’ve been enjoying Silicon Alley Insider a great deal. It has rapidly made it onto my start the day/end the day list of sites. I had the pleasure of having lunch with much of the team a few weeks ago and I’m very excited by the focus and passion they are putting into their site. What I like even more is the passion and devotion the readers are giving back.

Take a look at the comments to Hank Williams’ guest post Market Research is for Suckers. Williams’ post was inspired by thoughts he had while being interviewed by Courtney Nichols for NextNYers where Nichols asks about market research. Just 10 years ago, Williams’ post would have been a well written but one dimensional column in a magazine (if it were published at all.) Now Nichols can jump into the conversation and provide another perspective.

Check it out.