A couple of weeks ago, Henry raised a key issue in the global discourse on user-generated content. That issue: should users benefit financially from content they have created with industry-provided tools (or shared via industry-provided distribution systems?) Here’s a good quote from the post:

If consumers are helping to generate the intellectual property and helping to market the product, shouldn’t they receive some economic return on their participation? Lund says no — that this would fundamentally change their relationship to the company…

I made a few comments on Henry’s post which I’d like to echo here. To the point: I think it’s clear that economic returns, while not always the best (or even appropriate) creative incentive, are not inherently contrary to the spirit of user-generated content. In some cases, financial incentives may even grease the wheels of UGC.

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