I have said for a long time that online publishers were going to face an uphill battle winning back the mindshare of a generation that is used to finding the content they want for free. Why should anyone buy an issue of People magazine when all of the juicy gossip is already online for free? Why pay for downloads of music when you can copy your friend’s CD or file for free? Why should video be any different?

I will continue to analyze the issue of free vs. paid content models, as I am particularly fascinated by the lack of clear strategy coming from the content owners. The race to control their content distribution has begun in a flurry of deals that make little or no sense in the long term. The trade media has focused on the benefits of the deals without exploring the real world viability, and completely ignored the impact of piracy.

For example, the other night I missed an episode of Scrubs that I forgot to record. While I could have gone to NBC.com to see if they offered a stream (they do not), I went straight to my trusted source of all things under the radar, and voila! There it was, with more than 3,000 users hosting the content. I was able to download the show in about five minutes, commercial free.