It's Brilliant

I've thought of this before, but I've never had it put so simply and effectively:

Right now, Internet users seem to enjoy making videos, often using copyrighted music and video. That's illegal, right? Sure, but it also hints at a new revenue stream for record labels, movie studios, TV networks, filmmakers and musicians.

There's no way for an individual to legally license a song for use in their home movie, or for a basement filmmaker to easily license a clip of video to use in a movie she's making. Established musicians and filmmakers, when they want to use a clip or a sample, can hire lawyers to "clear" the sample they want to use, and usually pay lots of money for the right to incorporate it in their work. But wouldn't you guess a much larger number of aspiring musicians and filmmakers might pay a smaller amount to license music and video -- providing they didn't have to hire laywers?

(And if you answer no, consider this... Auction houses probably would have told you a dozen years ago that the only people who wanted to sell things at auction were Vanderbilts and Cabots who owned priceless works of art, and that the only people who wanted to buy things at auction were similarly wealthy. The costs and hassles of selling something at auction were simply too much for the average schmo to bear. Then along came eBay, which is now bigger than every auction house in the world combined.)

Somebody please please please start up an Ebay for intellectual property!