How should one read into an AdAge story that MySpace is holding talks with Nylon about the launch of a magazine - you know, those old-style, paper-based publications with glossy covers. "We're in the process of modeling it," an executive involved in the discussions told AdAge. "Our main concern is the MySpace brand. We don't want to do anything that would hurt the brand." Apparently, this potential magazine would focus on the interests of popular MySpace members. Interesting idea but I was under the impression the MySpace generation has abandoned magazines, newspapers, etc., which is why advertisers are rushing to the Web to reach young consumers. People Magazine, for example, recently decided to scrap the paper version of Teen People and make it a Web-only property. MySpace's apparent interest in a magazine reminds me of the dot-com days when Business 2.0 put out issues teeming with so many ads it eventually felt compelled to go bi-weekly to meet demand (and, of course, cash in on all those free-spending dot-coms). Who knows, maybe the MySpace folks figure there is room to extend the brand and the "platform" but it seems like an odd strategic foray.
Update: If a MySpace magazine is possible, how far could the brand be extended? What about youth-oriented products such as condoms, CDs, mobile phones, video games? Peter Cashmore thinks a MySpace idea is a terrible idea because there would be distribution costs and the content would never be as diverse as the Web. Seamus McCauley, however, believes the concept is a "surprisingly subtle strategy", while Scott Karp describes the idea as an "April Fool's Joke" before pondering whether MySpace should create a tool for its member to create personalized magazines used PDF files.

My friend and fellow mesh organizer, Michael McDerment, has got himself some TechCrunch Love for Freshbooks, a cool Web-based invoicing company. Freshbooks, which is based in Toronto, recently unveiled a new service that lets users send invoices to customers by first-class U.S. Mail rather than over the Web. As everyone knows, TechCrunch has become the way to launch a new Web 2.0 company and/or service but I wonder how much actual "juice" these profiled companies receive. Does traffic suddenly to their Web sites suddenly surge and then level off to a healthy level? Do VCs look at TechCrunch Love as a positive endorsement that deems a company worthy of investment? Does TechCrunch have that much influence? Maybe. Then again, TechCrunch crunches through an awful lot of companies every week/month so it becomes more difficult to tell what companies are really on to something and what companies/services are simply new. In terms of Freshbooks, a little TechCrunch Love can only be a good thing given it's a real company with paying customers that generates revenue - which makes it a bit of an anomaly within the Web 2.0 landscape.

Telecom consultant Mark Goldberg has got himself involved in the middle of a disturbing situation involving some alleged white supremacists who - via Web sites in Canada and the U.S. - are apparently calling for the murder of a human rights lawyer in Ottawa who put Tomasz Winnicki in jail for ignoring a court order to stop posting hate on the Internet. Goldberg has teamed up with lawyers from Papazian Heisey Myers and Bernie Farber, CEO of Canadian Jewish Congress, to file an application with the CRTC under section 36 of the Telecom Act to ask the regulator to order ISPs to block access to these Web sites. You can read Mark's post here. While I'm not sure I agree with Jon Arnold's view this is the dark side of Net Neutrality, I agree with Jon that ISPs (carriers, cablecos and re-sellers) and governments have a responsibility to block content that is clearly illegal. How they proceed should follow the legal process and respect freedom of speech but the Internet is not a free for all or the wild west. Here's a Canadian Press story.