Advertising. I spend time at a science blog maintained by a writer for a major Texas daily. On every screen there is a banner ad at the top. The ads are for different products at each screen, and one is inevitably exposed to a number of different ads in jumping around screens. They’re easy to ignore, but who knows what subliminal messages are imprinted on my brain.

My particular interest at that blog is climate change. There are a number of very knowledgeable people who contribute to the discussion that have added immeasurably to my education on the subject. I can’t think of any other medium where one can direct his or her own education in quite the same way.

I frequently read Jerry Rising’s nature column in the Sunday Buffalo News, and have communicated with him a couple times through email on subjects of interest to me. He is always very helpful, but if he were to run a blog, there would be a much larger number of people, many with expertise in various areas, who could respond to questions and link to other resources.

I think blogs are terrific and am happy to hear that the News is getting on the bandwagon.

By reserving some (instead of all) rights.

As well, the question is more accurate when stated as “how do they sustain revenue when the online digital world basically negates the right to distribution?” Using the term “intellectual property” is vague and only used by lawyers who understand its meaning or by propagandists who wish to lead people into believing that the conflation of ideas with physical property rights is justified.

Probably the best organization helping to spread awareness of the fact that All Rights Reserved doesn’t fit the digital world is the creative commons. More information on them can be found here.

I would also highly recommend “The Wealth of Networks” by Yochai Benkler. It can be downloaded for free here.