Geek News Central overshoots on This American Life link scandal
Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central mentions today that This Americal Life (TAL) has “no right to ask people to stop linking” to .mp3 files on their server and closes with the suggestion:
This is sad, everyone should ask them to not link to any external story on the Internet, and anyone that is linking to them on their websites should remove all links and isolate them.
TAL is one of the few shows that I actually want to get on a “play anywhere” podcast. Streaming audio is fine, but the only time I’d listen to that is when I’m at work which is when I should, um, be working. The only offline means they provide is via Audible, but I don’t want to get an account. After all, I already contribute to NPR during the pledge drives. At one point, I tried to find a decent way to convert the stream to .mp3 (I never thought to get the file path from the .m3u file – d’oh!), but when I couldn’t get that to work well, I gave up and now I just catch the show if it happens to be on while I’m driving.
Personally, I think it’s a technical misunderstanding on the part of their web server admins, and possibly a copyright issue as well. It’s their web server and files, and I think they have the right to say what you can or cannot link to. Of course, telling people not to link to your publicly accessible files is about as secure as locking your front door with a strip of duct tape. If they don’t want direct links, then they need to secure their files.
In case anyone is wondering, they do have a good reason for not wanting direct links. From their FAQ:
This American Life podcasts are available to weekly subscribers at Audible.com. There is a fee for shows delivered via podcasting, the same as other TAL episodes purchased through Audible or the Apple Music Store. These fees provide a small stream of money – not much, to be sure, but some – that we split with the show’s contributors. We think it’s fair for them to be compensated for their work. (emphasis added)
I agree that taking legal action is overkill, but instead of berating them and advocating link boycotting, I think the listeners and tech community should be educating TAL on the proper technical solutions.
See you at Gnomedex, Todd. :)
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