Free the feed, part II

It turns out that super-brilliant friend Tom has solved the problem.

Comments

Um, is anyone concerned that this will be interpreted as an attack? We seem to be explicitly acknowledging that the partial feed providers are intentionally avoiding a full feed in order to preserve their source of revenue, so this tool is clearly a circumvention method...

I suppose it could be interpreted as no different than a TiVo - giving you a Season Pass feed and allowing you to skip the commercials, but then again, it could be interpreted in the same way as posting ad-free network TV shows on YouTube.

It's not that I don't sympathize or like convenience, but does anyone else see a lawsuit in his future?

Posted by Geoff | January 7, 2008 3:45 PM

Geoff: I'm not too worried. For one thing, I think it would be an at least interesting case -- "you can view our content in THIS type of HTML-viewing application but not THAT type" is a fairly baroque argument.

For another thing, it would be much easier and cheaper to block the tool than to file a lawsuit. The effort required would be on the order of 5-10 minutes for a competent technician. And although I could then enter into an arms race to make sure the tool worked, I wouldn't -- if a site owner wants to be excluded and indicates that to me (either by contacting me or blocking the tool) then of course I'll respect those wishes.

Posted by Tom | January 8, 2008 10:24 AM