John “Searchblog” Battelle’s #1 prediction for 2006 (emphasis added):

1. Someone, and I do not know who, will make a big pile of Big Media video assets freely available on the web – and not via Google Video. This will be a major studio, or television company, which will realize that once you free content, content will come back to you in mashed up and remixed glory that has – holy smokes! – real business models like advertising and retail attached. The deal will be simple: anyone can download, rip, and mix this video, but if you plan to make money from it – even selling ads next to it – you have to cut a deal with the mother ship. The company that does this will be heralded as either visionary, lunatic, or both.

Attribution-NonCommercial, anyone?

Battelle posted his predictions December 21, so perhaps this observation is a bit late, but this year is less than four percent over…