Comments on: What are the Ethics of using RSS feeds?

By: BobbyMasteria

BobbyMasteria — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Business is business, license is license, jail is jail.
If they break your license for business, send them to jail.
The concept of gadgets99.com is silly, it does the job of an aggregator without allowing its control !

By: BobbyMasteria

BobbyMasteria — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I forgot to say that like skweezer.com they are what I call blog-looters.

By: Rex Hammock

Rex Hammock — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m of the “my posts want to be free” school. My blog is covered under a Creative Commons license that offers pre-approval to anyone to use its content in a non-commercial way if attributed. If asked, my definition of what is non-commercial is rather broad. Certainly, I don’t mind if anyone takes what I’ve blogged and displays it on a page carrying Google ads. Go ahead. If they generate enough traffic to make money off of AdSense, then, heck, the exposure is worth it to me.

I think my only limitation to reuse would be for the usage of my posts in a repackaged-offline commercial way, although I’d probably be generous on that front, also…I’d just want to grant permission.

I live and work in a world of copyrighted content. However, when I blog, I do so for reasons (or maybe it’s some crazed compulsion) that are almost counter to anything (like copyright hang-ups) that would limit the distribution of what I have to say. It’s the blogosphere. It’s a conversation. If I start saying it’s unethical for someone to (in the case you bring up) merely point to my posts in the context of aggregated headlines from similar blog, or extract a sentence and point to it, then, what’s next? Not letting Google News point to me (they don’t anyway? Technorati?

And what do I gain by forbiding such aggrevators to highlight my posts? I think, in terms of “value,” the additional inbound links (and, one would hope, click throughs) to you are probably a good trade-off for the value of your headlines. If you were paying for an AdSense click through, what would you have to pay?

Just my thoughts. Probably, worth very little on a Sunday afternoon.

By: Rex Hammock

Rex Hammock — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

freudian slip: “aggrevators” – aggregators

By: John Andersson

John Andersson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Darren,

We’re happy to see that you have noticed our page. First, I’d like to apologize if our usage of your RSS-feed has offended you. As many with us we work under the assumption that RSS-feeds are “semi-free”. We both agree and understand your concern that they might not be.

We would like you to know that if you do not wish to be included as one of the sources to Gadgets99 we will immediately remove you. Our main goal is to give the user a broader view of the gadget-scene and provide them with a “above” view of the information flow.

It’s not happy news to be compared to sites like the above skweezer.com or other “spam”-like sites. We have worked hard to create a professional look and feel without the spam. There is a niche and need for this type of service, its ten years old and called intelligent agent.

Please dont hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or inqueries about our service.