Entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris seems to have a better understanding of the world of online entertainment than most. He’s got a great quote in a recent NYTimes article:

“Everybody says that content is king, but they’re not acting like it,” Mr. Morris said. “On the tech side, they don’t have any cultural understanding of the tradition of paying for talent. They’re enamored of user-generated stuff because they think ‘Entourage’ is real — that they’re going to get ripped off.”

He continued: “The media companies, meanwhile, are so big, they have no spirit of entrepreneurialism and they’re obsessed with being tough. Nobody wants to be the guy that overpaid. It creates a risk-averse culture, just at a time when we need risks.”

He’s right. With a few small exceptions, the world of online video is still obsessed with two things right now: technology and user-generated content. While content is king, everyone is afraid of it, and because of that they are also afraid to take risks. The old-school media companies, with all of their money, are racing themselves to the bottom.

Where does this leave us? My prediction is that we’re going to continue to see the real groundbreaking online video work from small companies and less traditional online media companies. The movie studio of the future isn’t at a lot in Burbank, but is in some office building in New York.

Now’s the time to jump in.