The purpose of RSS feeds

Hmm, I 've been having an interesting 'conversation/exchange of views' on the subject of newsfeeds and copyright. (Which I think I'm sort of losing.)

I tend to view RSS as an offsite promotional tool that you can use to point to content on your website. So I have a set of RSS feeds on Travel-Lists for Travel News, Latest Travel Ideas, News of Travel Bargains, and Updated Lists.

These days the use of RSS has long since evolved from RDF Site Summary to Really Simple Syndication, so 'whole content' is now being carried in RSS files eg in blogs or podcasts.

As such, it should be, and is, copyright protected. But part of me still feels that if you use RSS to index content on your site, you should waive copyright and expect it to be published anywhere not just in the places you'd like to see it eg. Bloglines, Yahoo, Moreover, etc. After all, let's not kid ourselves, that's why you are doing it.


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