The specific issue we discussed was how can you expect the music industry to feel like they need to improve the economics of a relationship that allows a company to be worth billions of dollars. It's a great point and one that came back to me when I read the Airbnb article in the New York Times yesterday. It was this comment by Janan New, executive director of the San Francisco Apartment Association, that struck me:

I believe that any company that claims that sort of worth [$2bn] should have the social responsibility to disclose what the laws are in the jurisdiction that they’re in. And if they’re not capable of that, then their worth isn’t that high.

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Brilliant.

I believe that any company that claims that sort of worth [$2bn] should have the social responsibility to disclose what the laws are in the jurisdiction that they’re in.

It would be hard to find someone who disagrees with this.

 The venture capitalist and the employees of said company, clearly. I like Fred's article, but I don't agree with his conclusion. His conclusion is to hide the valuation of the company. 

Hiding the valuation is hard in the Internet era.

Probably not worth the energy. Transparency saves that energy.