The following is from Blip.tv’s Mission and Principles page.

Democratization

We are living in an age that historians will say was characterized by the democratization of expression. Whereas the means of media production and dissemination were once concentrated in a few hands, they are now ubiquitous: everybody can be an entertainer, an educator or a pundit. The traditional constraints imposed by high costs of production and limited distribution are no more: now that anyone with a camera and a computer can produce video content, the only constraint is that imposed by the limits of human creativity. Blip’s users have shown that no such limit exists.

We believe that this liberation of the means of production is one of the most important things to happen in recent history. It allows anyone to create the next great sitcom, to share the reality of daily life across cultural boundaries, to share political thoughts and educational materials. This is a beautiful thing, and we are dedicated to furthering this democratization in a manner that always respects intellectual property rights in a venue where everyone can feel comfortable.

Openness

Ours is a new economy of plenty. It’s no longer in anyone’s best interests to put shackles on media, to tie media down to a specific Web site or to be tight-fisted with metadata. We believe that it is in the interests of the community and in the interests of blip.tv to be open with media and data about media.

We are not building a walled garden — we are actively working to break down walls in order to enable the free and open sharing of media and media metadata throughout the Web.

Watch WebProNews interview with Dina Kaplan, COO of blip.tv here.