>I can't see any technical reason [other than software defaults] that
authors/publishers can't just publish their own full feed. Hence I'd
argue that the full-feed tool would be more or less redundant in an
opt-in model. [Making a pretty PDF, however, is quite clever.]

I think that simply underlines the point that it is not a technical, but a
moral and ethical, question.

>I'm not sure where I'd want to draw the line on the question of what
processing of websites is acceptable; I would tend to argue that most
forms of processing for personal use are okay unless explicitly
forbidden; but where third parties are involved, they should be much
more cautious; I would agree that broadersheet/fivefilters ought to
ensure they have a licence to redistribute their content.

I appreciate the point - it's an interesting debate.

The BBC particularly quite rightly get shirty if you start building a
commercial service from their content, but are unofficially quite relaxed.

There's also a big issue around building a service which facilitates
scraping and splogging. There's enough trouble our there without sharp
developers giving potential auto-scrape-toolkits to every idiot who wants
one.

The figures are that we have lost perhaps 700-1000 journalists from Regional
Papers recently due to loss of revenue. I think the "full feed PDF paper"
type service is better placed as a value added service for content
providers, or a licensed use of content by third parties. The Northern Echo
(not a small paper), for example, cut 15% last autumn. It's quite important.
Once the content creators have gone bust there's nothing left to build full
feeds from.

>A question: would you object to my hypothetical butler cutting out
only the most interesting stories from the free paper, clipping them
together and handing them to me?

No, but I don't think that is a good comparison.

Although of course, if you're butler is a PR agency charging you for the
privilege he would need a cuttings licence from the Newspaper Licensing
Authority !

M.

On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 4:53 PM, 'Dragon' Dave McKee <[email protected]>wrote:

> > There's a tool presented by a commenter that will take a partial feed,
> > scrape the content articles it refers to, and provide a full feed.
> >
> > I'm surprised how strongly I feel about this: such services must be
> > opt-in for each author.
>
> I can't see any technical reason [other than software defaults] that
> authors/publishers can't just publish their own full feed. Hence I'd
> argue that the full-feed tool would be more or less redundant in an
> opt-in model. [Making a pretty PDF, however, is quite clever.]
>
> I'm not sure where I'd want to draw the line on the question of what
> processing of websites is acceptable; I would tend to argue that most
> forms of processing for personal use are okay unless explicitly
> forbidden; but where third parties are involved, they should be much
> more cautious; I would agree that broadersheet/fivefilters ought to
> ensure they have a licence to redistribute their content.
>
> A question: would you object to my hypothetical butler cutting out
> only the most interesting stories from the free paper, clipping them
> together and handing them to me?
>
> Dave.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list [email protected]
> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe:
> https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
>
_______________________________________________
Mailing list [email protected]
Archive, settings, or unsubscribe:
https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public

Reply via email to