Working with the audience

Jeff Jarvis makes an excellent point at BuzzMachine in this post and others, arguing that it's wrong (as well as counter productive) for MSNBC to insist that nobody can use their debate video except them.

This situation demonstrates how fundamentally the media landscape has changed.

• You can't really control what people do with your content.
• So what? The public good is better served when it's widely available.
• And, finally, if you recognize that fact and work with it, you can turn it into a benefit.

Of course there's nuance. I wouldn't advise you to roll over and accept wholesale appropriation of the content you worked hard and paid dearly to create. We shouldn't let people misreprsent or misuse our work if we can help it.

But when people demonstrate that they value what you're doing by using it – quoting, reassembling, linking – for God's sake work with that, not against it.