Friends:
Never met this guy...

How to monetize and protect digital content is clearly the most important question driving the media today. Hmmmmm, the horse is gone from the stable, why not find a new system that works with technology not against it...

This past weekend, I was not only able to download the entire season of WB's Smallville and UPN's Enterprise over KaZaA, but I was also able to burn them all onto blank CDs (total cost for 20 episodes: around $10 in blank CDs) and play them in my DVD player with Nero video CD-burning software. These TV shows were not only available free over the Internet, but the people are putting them up on the Internet took the time to take out the commercials. You know I do believe that was illegal....


Content is being stolen and shared by tens of millions of users around the world. Yourself included evidently. Another consideration: The media industry is not just being faced with the challenge of protecting content, it's also faced with the challenge of moving this content into digital format, managing mountains of data, and creating the right system to deliver it to customers. In other words, we have to pay the bill to build systems and then hope that the freeloading public actually takes out its wallet. To wit: It's not going to be easy. I hope, really, I hope your not holding your breath...and excuse me but did you just accuse the consumers of being a bunch of freeloaders? Hint, Jason don't insult your customers, it's just bad business.


Solving the content-management challenge includes addressing billing, digital-rights management, media-asset management, streaming, personalization, and data management (to name just a few of the issues). At the Content Management Summit (fka Digital Rights Management Summit), 75 senior execuives will join to discuss these issues and also to look at the latest technology and services being developed to tackle these complicated problems. If this is such a Senior level event how did he get my name? And Content Management, why don't you try customer service and get the executives talking to their customers, they might have a few ideas....


The Content Management Summit is being held on Jan. 29 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles--think of it as one day with 75 senior executives, and many questions to address. What are we doing here? Is that Julia Roberts? Why is the sky so brown? Why is my leg turning yellow?


The format of the event includes a handful of presentations about the leading content-management systems, but also two one-hour "breakout" sessions, in which the 75 senior executives will break into three groups of 25 to discuss and debate the questions facing of the online content industry. What will I be doing while the executives get their special session?


There are three main goals for the event: Get Drunk, Get Laid, Get High? (or in Jason's case Get a Job?)


1. Bring together the leading media, distribution, and technology players in the space for high-level discourse Use it in a sentence, "Discourse sucks".

2. Showcase the leading technology solutions for the content-management challenge Don't bother the hackers have already found the holes in it.

3. Create opportunities for senior-level executives to conduct business See Get Drunk....


If you are interested in attending, please visit our website for instructions on how to purchase a ticket. I hope you can join us for this important event. Well, thank you for your interest but I don't think so...unless your willing to front me a plane ticket and entry fees.


Best Regards,


Jason McCabe Calacanis
Editor-in-Chief & CEO,
Venture Reporter & VentureReporter.net
(fka Silicon Alley Reporter)

So let me get this right, your publication as a publisher of an a**kissing magazine goes out of business (see Silicon Alley Reporter). You decide to sell tickets to people who want to monetize content. Then try to milk them of money while admitting to stealing their content in the process. (See paragraph "This past weekend...") You have to admire someone with enough balls to do that, or they are really stupid, not sure which. Jason McCabe Calacanis if you come across this, good luck with your event, but I'd suggest reading this...