In a recent post, Jason Calacanis went off on one about Newsgator's 'accidental' and temporary placement of ads against some Weblogs Inc. feeds in the somewhat bizarrely titled - "Newsgator is not stealing our content", in which he states:
Let me be clear to RSS reader companies: You have no right to make money off of our full-feeds. None. Any advertising against our full content is ours and it belongs to our bloggers and shareholders. If you want to make money off our full feeds you need to cut a deal with us--it's called syndication and folks have been doing it for a long time.Cue flurry of posts from blogosphere, some in favour (Duncan Riley) of JC's stance (there's a Monty Python sketch there somewhere),and some against (TechDirt, RSS Blog) My initial reaction was anti-JC, then I stopped and wondered whether he had a point or not. Then I saw his note on the Newsgator response, which included this line:
Let's face it, web-based RSS readers are--at the end of the day--web pages. As a publisher we can not let folks republish our content in any way they like, and we certainly can't let folks republish our content with advertising against it! If you replace RSS reader with "web page" in this whole discussion it is clear that any company taking another companies IP without permission and putting ads againt it is wrong--no matter how much value they provide to the end users.Hmm - so the distinction is all about whether the client is web based or not...that seems wrong - as does whether the content is represented as a "web page" or not. For instance what would happen if the rendering was done via a flash applet, or an online flash app. What about something like Amphetadesk - a client-side aggregator that serves up local web pages ? Or pure client side aggregators like FeedDemon. Not to mention ad supported client applications - like Opera. What about an independent application (or a Firefox plugin) that just scans the content of whatever is in the main browser frame and displays relevant ads, or relevant links ? All of these, to me, work on the same principle as Newgator or Bloglines, so why penalise the web application ? We can no longer can make an useful distinction between web and desktop applications in such instances. Doing so seems very arbitrary and out of touch. I think, eventually, JC will be forced to alter his position on this - and I don't think it will do him or the Weblogs content any harm at all. [tags]newsgator, ads, bloglines, aggregator, calacanis, weblogsinc, monetization[/tags]
The bottom line is that we let people use our full-feed for non-commercial use. If those folks abuse that by selling ads against our content we will not be able to make a living and pay our bloggers.
I understand the debate of what is a webpage vs. a standalone application, but at the end of the day we own the content along with our bloggers and it is up to us to set the terms in which people can use it. If we say that you can't make money off of it then you can't--that's just a fact.
So, if folks abuse the feeds we put out there we will have to take action. If folks are respectful and get permission from us there will never be a issue.
We've begged the RSS reader companies to come up with revenue sharing solutions and with the exception of Feedburner no one has stepped up.
This is not a black and white issue... but the big picture is clear: it's our content and if you want to monetize it you need permission.
Also, this isn't about fair use... this is about folks using our content to make money without permission. If folks want to use the headline or first 100 characters we're fine with that (of course)... in fact, we have no choice but to be ok with fair use--cause it's fair use! :-)
Jason, you said that because other people are putting ads on your content, that you won't be able to make a living. That simply doesn't make any sense.
Jason,
Thanks for responding.
Can't deny that the content is yours, and you're free to do what you want with it.
But for someone seemingly steeped in this new world of ours, I don't understand the distinction you're making between client and web apps.
But it's your ball - and if you want to take it home and stop everyone else playing (or at least charge them for the privilege), then I guess we have no choice in the matter.
Of course, if any of the RSS aggregators do a deal with you, then they may have to do a deal with *every* other content owner out there, but that isn't your problem is it ?
PS - I'm voting with my mouse finger - I've unsubbed to all Weblogs.Inc blogs.