Comments on: What happens when you don’t understand technology

By: Bren

Bren — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Actually, I think Schwimmer is cool with other RSS readers–it’s just Bloglines he doesn’t like.

It sounds like he believes that Bloglines frames his whole site, without attribution, and that’s what he doesn’t like.

I tried, briefly, to see how Bloglines does this because I vaguely recall seeing my own site displyed this way. Couldn’t figure it out in 30 second so I gave up. Maybe one of your other readers will know how…

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

But that’s the whole point. Bloglines is nothing more or less than an RSS aggregator. It just runs in a Web browser. It displays Schwimmer’s entire RSS feed. If I use NewsGator (another Web-based aggregator), I see exactly the same thing. If I use a client-side aggregator, I see exactly the same content, in a different window, and the developer of that aggregator could choose to put ads in it.

If Schwimmer thinks his contact information is so important, he can edit his RSS template to include those details.

Btw, there is no view of Bloglines that has his site framed in a Bloglines window. His RSS content, which he provides, is being redistributed to 190 people who will soon be cut off completely. Since he controls what goes into his RSS feed, this decision is, to say the least, short-sighted.

By: Christopher Baus

Christopher Baus — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I’m not convinced the law is screwed up here. RSS feeds are copyrighted material. We can’t ignore copyright law everytime we have a new technology, and claim that it doesn’t apply. If that was the case we would have no order in the IP world. Trust me, nobody working in IP in the western world wants copyright law thrown out.

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

So where did I say I want copyright law thrown out completely? I make my living as an author selling copyrighted material in book form, so I clearly ave a dog in this this hunt.

The whole purpose of publishing an RSS feed is to share your content. If someone is deliberately reframing your content in a way that either (1) makes it appear that they are the author or (2) allows them to reap commercial benefit in an improper way, then yes, I have a problem with that. But neither of those cases is true with Bloglines.

In fact, if Schwimmer wants to accomplish the stated purpose of his objection, he can do so much better by publishing useful excerpts in his RSS feed that summarize the point of his post and include both a link to the longer post on his Web site and his contact information. That would be much more productive than whining about unfair use when nothing here appears to be unfair at all.

By: Brian Carnell

Brian Carnell — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

“But neither of those cases is true with Bloglines.”

Huh? Bloglines clearly has plans to introduce targeted ads in the RSS feeds it serves.

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Well, “clearly has plans” is not the same as “is true.”

Unless you want to charge them with conspiracy to sell commercial services. And even if they have targeted ads, much depends on the implementation. Done properly, there is nothing wrong with that.

What do you think of Yahoo’s feature that lets you put RSS feeds on the My Yahoo page, where there are ads?

By: Threadwatch.org

Threadwatch.org — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Trouble Brewing over Search Engines, Aggregators and Copyrights

Scoble points out a row brewing over RSS aggregator Bloglines and Russ Beattie and Russ Beattie