Honda gets it right.

I did talk some time ago about how piracy can be good for business, with the exception of people whose services aren't necessary anymore: distributors, which in the TV case are the broadcasting stations.

Companies should, and will, advertise directly to customers through the production of high value content released for free on the p2p networks. Something like this is already happening, at the hands of Skype (and Kazaas') creators.

Now, Honda seems to get it, with this plan: to run smaller commercials for a smaller car in smaller versions of television series.

Honda will be the sole sponsor of what Sony Pictures Television is calling the Minisode Network, which is scheduled to begin next week. Visitors to the MySpace Web site (my space.com) will be able to watch episodes of 15 vintage Sony series like “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Facts of Life,” “Fantasy Island” and “Who’s the Boss,” edited from their original lengths of 30 or 60 minutes each to an Internet-friendly 4 to 6 minutes.

Now, you can see how funding for this stuff has been kept to the bare minimum, but this is just the beginning. Once the managers see the machine is working, money will pour in.

Welcome to our free as in beer future!