I have to admit, I'm getting a little tired of waiting for reality to catch up to my expectations. Especially, when it comes to television and film I'm a little shocked that we haven't gotten to what I see as an inevitable leap. We haven't yet seen the full-on merging of these formats with the Internet.

Oh sure, I can now download and watch just about any television program I want using providers like iTunes. I can pick up a flick on Vongo.com. I can drop by YouTube and watch pretty much anything I've ever wanted to see. And Bit Torrent... well... one drools at the prospects. But despite the plethora of available programming it just isn't where it should be. Not yet.

Recently I got TiVo. I've survived without TiVo for a long time, but now that I have it I can certainly see the advantage of it. I mean, I've had DVRs in the past and they pretty much give me what TiVo gives me, with one exception. TiVo has the ability to provide its OWN programming.

If you use the service you probably know that the latest generation of these magic boxes can actually go online and download content like previews and behind the scenes specials. It's essentially a Linux based computer, so really it has the option of running just about any kind of content you can imagine. So this has me thinking... why haven't we graduated to all of our content coming to us over the Internet?

The technology is here. Now. I can hit a button and look at online content. Networks like ABC and NBC have put their programming online (usually for a limited time after the initial broadcast). So why can't I punch that up on my TiVo?

In fact, why should I ever have to watch TV again?

There's an opportunity here. With new forms of compression it's getting easier to deliver clean, high quality programming over broadband connections. So what if a company like TiVo took advantage of this? What if, instead of paying for cable or satellite television, I paid for a broadband Internet connection and TiVo and got all my programming without the annoyance of, say, 10 Spanish channels or 15 sports channels or a bunch of home shopping channels I never watch? What if I could pick my lineup, like programming my own special network, regardless of the studio that produced it, the network that broadcast it or the original time it was broadcast?

The answer, obviously, is that it isn't the technology that's holding us up. It's the networks. They haven't figured out how to force feed us the hours of advertising they currently use to make their revenue. Can we blame them for wanting to make a living? No. Can we blame them for holding up progress in the name of a buck? Yep.

I'm disillusioned with TV. That's a heart wrenching thing to say because TV has always been the nurturing glass teat of my existence. But it's true. I'm tired of endless advertisements and sub-standard programming. Heck, we get ads on cable channels that we pay EXTRA to watch. What's up with that? If I'm paying for something then I don't want to be advertised to. That covers TV, movies, and satellite radio. So far I've gotten ad blitzed by all of them.

But my rant on the advertising avalanche is for another time. Right now I'm focused on the fact that we have the ability to merge television and Internet into one overwhelmingly useful, cool and entertaining creation and the hold-up is money. Not OUR money, of course... that's only good for throwing at advertisers. No, it's the fact that networks would take a cut in revenues.

So be it. Yeah, I know, easy for me to say. But the fact is that broadcasting online requires less overhead. It doesn't require a broadcast license. It doesn't require affiliate stations. It doesn't require towers or large power requirements or any of the other trappings of modern broadcasting. In short, by going completely online a network can cut its operating costs down while keeping advertising dollars (and other sources of revenue) up.

Of course this has the unfortunate side effect of running local affiliates out of business, right?

Does it?

When cable television became prevalent there was a worry that local stations would be pushed out of the market because they didn't offer the edgier, cooler programming. National news networks would run local news stations out of business because they had more money behind them, more reach, and more polish. But none of these doomsday prophecies came to pass. Why? Because people still want local news and local content.

Here's the future, according to Kevin - networks will start broadcasting their programming entirely online, using a model much like what is available now (advertisers paying for programming in commercial breaks). Local "affiliates" will become independents, broadcasting their news programs online and beginning to offer "local content." Newspapers will either become broadcasters themselves or partner with a broadcaster to start offering video content online. Telephone services will become VOIP services (like Vonage), operating entirely online. Cellular phone services will transform into WIFI phone services, converting their towers into large mobile "hot spots."

In other words, the Internet will become our one-stop source for all information, entertainment and communication. We will reap the full benefits of a unified, worldwide network and source of information for the first time in our history. And all it takes for it to happen is for the "giants" of these industries to get their heads out of their collective posteriors and push ahead into the future.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is the Editor of ViewOnline Magazine. Please feel free to contact him with any questions or comments. His personality is now entirely online.

I have this thing about "intellectual property." It's a dicey kind of concept for me, especially since I've made a living as a writer, producer and designer. On the one hand I get that you don't want someone just blatantly stealing your work while you languish in poverty. On the other I think that we live in a unique time in history where a concept like intellectual property could even exist.

Our culture is really the first to have this concept (as far as we know, anyway... maybe Atlantis had copyrights and trademarks?). The idea of owning a...well...idea...is fairly new. And frankly it's completely at odds with how our society treats information. How can I, as a writer, expect to put my words in front of millions of people and then disallow them from spreading those concepts and ideas to others?

Communication is all about taking an idea, making it your own and conveying it (sometimes slightly altered) to another human being. Trust me, I didn't think of that all on my own... I took it from what I learned during my undergrad work. I've also taken it from the various books and articles I've read, television shows and movies I've watched, and the music and radio broadcasts I've listened to. Ideas come in from all over, get filtered in the Kevin Mind, then get spewed out as the pant-load you're reading now. It's a natural and beautiful process.

That being said, how can I say that I "own" the ideas? I mean, sure, I put my own spin on things. I use observations from other aspects of my life to color and shape an idea. But ultimately aren't I just reshaping clay that someone else has handed me? I didn't create it whole from the ether, I just molded it.

Orson Scott Card wrote about a super virus in his book "Speaker for the Dead." It's a virus that actually behaves much like a sentient life form. It learns, adapts, and communicates. It reshapes the world around it, making it fit with its own "ideas." In many ways, that's what communication is - a virus. When I say something to you it has an effect and it may persuade you to say something to someone else with equal effect. The idea, once innocuous and innocent, is now raging in a disease vector from one host to another until it may very well sweep over the whole world.

Have you ever thought of some clever turn of phrase, said it out loud, and then some time later heard it on a television show or read it in an article? Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe it really did spread outward from you and take over the world.

By the way, that idea was also borrowed from Mr. Card, straight out of his book "Ender's Game." See how neatly that worked out?

So how does this come back full circle to the whole "intellectual property" thing? It's funny... we writers depend so much on people paying to read our ideas, but the truth is all we really crave is for our work to be out there. We're crying out for people to read us. We want to share what we have to say with the whole world! So in truth we walk this fine line - on one side we know we have to make a living so we support this idea of intellectual property. On the other we just want to be heard, loved, appreciated and so we're willing to "give away the milk for free." Moo.

My own opinion is that you can't really own an idea. You can write a book. You can get it published and sold and make money from it. But in the end you can't keep people from "stealing" what's in it. In the end, it all belongs to the world.

The same goes for art, film, television... anything that started in the mind and ended up in front of millions. We claim ownership of it, but ultimately it's not ours to hold on to.

Now that the Internet has made worldwide, instant communication possible we're starting to see the threads of intellectual property come unraveled. Music is being pirated at an unprecedented rate, as are movies and television shows. Books can be transferred electronically from one person to another with nary a dime going to the author or publisher. Photos and artwork are essentially free for the taking by anyone with a computer. And what's the recourse of the property holder? Sue them all? No one ever became a popular novelist, musician or artist by suing their audience.

You could pull your work from the Web and only deal in "brick and mortar" establishments. But then you risk alienating yourself from the world wide audience. You risk never being anything more than "local."

No, the fact is that there's a change coming in regard to intellectual property. We invented this unwieldy chimera that can't sustain itself. So something new will have to take it's place. Some new idea will have to emerge and become the way the world thinks. Those who are truly brilliant and ambitious should start working on it now, because whoever comes up with the solution is going to redefine the world as we know it. And maybe money won't be the reward. But hey, money isn't everything. Right?

J. Kevin Tumlinson is the Editor for ViewOnline Magazine. He is a writer and producer living in Houston, TX. He owns the intellectual property rights to "Bite me, moron."