Developments in the content world

Digital content on both supply and demand side is going through lot of changes. Open media fans have launched Ourmedia.org. This throws new possibilities in terms of how you can produce derivative work, more power to the remixing culture.

Keeping content distribution democratic and out of the conntrol of those who have deep pockets is another matter. Mark Cuban has decided to finance the legal case on behalf of Grokster in its fight against MGM. Mark's simple theory for getting into the content play :

When content went digital, the floodgates opened. Content could be delivered digitally in thousands of different ways, and the number of methods for distribution would only expand over time. To me this meant the power of the gatekeepers would diminish and the power of independent content creators and owners would increase. With the explosion of the internet and then broadband, not only did households explode with digital content replay devices, but more importantly, consumers became comfortable with the concept of what digital was and what it meant to them. From CDs to DVDs to cellphones to email to cameras to HDTVs, in all cases the move to digital represented an improvement in quality, availability, flexibility, mobility and more. Just as I knew that digital in TV would lead to an explosion in the acceptance of HDTV over time, which is why we started HDNet and HDNet Movies (www.hd.net) the same acceptance would change how consumers bought and used any and all content.

Very interesting point he made about Maverick being a content play -

I then added the Dallas Mavericks as a content play with digital implications.

Sports will be a good quality source of content for many years (Think Gladiator model !). His main point though is about how significant this Grokster Vs MGM case is.

Unless Grokster loses to MGM in front of the Supreme Court. If Grokster loses, technological innovation might not die, but it will have such a significant price tag associated with it, it will be the domain of the big corporations only.
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This isnt the big content companies against the technology companies. This is the big content companies, against me.

Sweeping precedent which can come out of this case is what worries everybody in the technology industry. That alone is a big reason why this should be carefully deliberated.