Can Big Content be taught?

David Weinberger gives a fascinating -- but demoralizing -- account of his talk with a group of "senior people in the recording, movie and media industries" during the recent World Economic Forum meeting in New York. He tried to explain what consumers on the Internet want from them, but found a huge gulf in understanding:

The conversation doesn't lend itself to detailed retelling. But it sure was fascinating for me. I came away with four overall impressions:

First, these people are thrashing. They're floundering. They're desperate to find a way in which their organizations still add value. They are in denial but, it seemed to me, they know that there's just about nothing that the market wants from them. For example, at one point someone said, "Content is king." I replied that judging from the content they're producing, marketing is king; that's where their real value is. Further, I said, on the Internet, connection is king. But then they want to know how to "monetize" connection. There's nothing wrong with that, so long as you understand how monetizing it can kill it. ...

Second, they don't understand what the hell we're talking about. I can't say that I made any inroads. To them, the Internet is a transport for distributing bits they own. Its lack of DRM is a hole that they will plug. They have no doubt that strong DRM is on its way and that it's a good thing. ...

Third, they believe they're responding to the market. They do not recognize that their market has abandoned them. They think that file-sharing is an aberration. In some unthought way, I think they actually believe that the legislation they're back is something the market wants. They maintain this thought this by not actually thinking it out loud.

Fourth, they're going to win. They own Congress and neither Congress nor the entertainment cartel sees any reason to compromise. Their Lakoffian frame tells them that they're stopping theft, end of story. So they are going to kill the Internet and they don't even know it. ...

Depressed? You betcha.

Readers have started a thought-provoking follow-up discussion in the comments attached to his original post.

(Via Dan Gillmor's eJournal.)