Internet businesses are easy to get into, easy to compete with, easy to replace.

This is a truth Internet entrepreneurs know and big media companies have yet to find out.

That's why Jason Calacanis sold out Weblogsinc after just two years. That's why the owners of MySpace were willing to take Rupert Murdoch's money so quickly.

They know they can come up with another idea quickly, and compete effectively with it quickly, if they get unhappy with their new corporate parents. They also know that their peers in this business know this, and would gladly sell out to the same companies if they don't.

Thus, as soon as a position is a established, and a big company thinks, "ah hah, a barrier to new competition," the owners of those companies are going to take the money.

They know there's no such thing as a "barrier to entry."

The cost of building a scaled Web site is falling, not rising. It's attention and talent which are the quantities in short supply. So talent will take the money and look for the exits every time, knowing that, since no one online knows you're a dog, no one knows that you've slipped your chain, either.

What does this mean about today's Weblogsinc deal?

• If AOL is smart, it has lots of financial tie-ins and performance incentives in Calacanis' contract.
• For all the Weblogsinc authors, they can weigh what AOL will pay against what they might make on their own, knowing that going out on their own is possible.
• If Calacanis is still at Weblogsinc five years from (as his contract claims he will be) I will be very, very surprised.

Let me conclude with the correct analogy to these new Web businesses.

Movies.

I don't mean this in terms of the long-tail payback, or the powerful copyright. I mean in terms of the short-term nature of the relationships involved, and the primacy of talent. Studios know they're getting just "packages of talent" and don't pretend they've tied up anyone for the long term anymore.

By the way, this is a good thing. Until Big Media gets wise to it, sell to them any time you can. Sell them air, sell them water, walk away and watch 'em choke on it. It's fun.