If your browser is working correctly, you’ve got Travis Bickle reciting his famous “Are you talking to me” speech from Taxi Driver on the screen below. And have I lifted his copywritten content off of YouTube to add some zest to the blog? No, using the Screenbites Channel of the Grouper website I’ve legally placed this clip — and an ad for the film’s DVD — on the blog along with a feature that allows you to upload your own rendition of the DeNiro monologue.

Scott Kirsner (who picked the far friendlier Groundhogs Day for his own demo) explains over at his indispensable CinemaTech Blog:

Sony is making part of its content library available on Grouper, so that people can link to it, or embed it in their blogs or Web sites (as I’ve done here.) Every time a clip is played, there’s an opportunity to purchase the movie on DVD. Try clicking the menu button above… or waiting until the end of the video to see the purchase option. And Sony’s pricing of the DVD is appealing: $9.99, with no shipping.

Eventually, Sony or others could (and probably will) sell advertising around this content, or also enable you to buy a digital version of the full-length movie….

They even plan to eventually let users incorporate Sony clips into their own home-made videos — which will be another major leap toward the Internet-powered entertainment economy.

The Grouper site isn’t the easiest to navigate, but it will be interesting to watch this service take off, as I think it will. At the very least, it will make film blogging a lot more dynamic now that we can embed clips within our writing. At the most, Sony’s action will play a part in the atrophying of the feature-film format in favor of short-form work.