Slashdot Review – Produced by SDR News » 2009 » August

SDRNews: Murdoch and Reuters

August 9th, 2009 Administrator

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.9MB)

Reuters Happy to Take Web Traffic
Glory Days for IT Gone ?
Poor Passwords Worse than Virus Threat

SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit

Click Here to Sign Up for the SDR Newsletter

Prefer a Direct Download ? (mp3)
Download today’s show.

If a news item has disappeared from the Del.icio.us list above, try the full list here.

SEARCH ANY STORY YOU HEAR ON THE PODCAST

Murdoch and Reuters

by Andrew McCaskey
Which Approach Will Win ?

Rupert Murdoch has issued the ultimatum to Amazon: They are our customers, not yours – and we want their names. The ball is now in the Jeff Bezos court, and of all the decisions that he has made this year, it’s going to be one of the most important. If Bezos caves, and delivers up the Kindle subscriber list to the Wall Street Journal, the blogosphere is going to erupt in a way that will make the recent 1984 flap look tame. Not to mention the EFF and probably a half dozen other legal challenges. Amazon will surely survive, but the Kindle probably won’t.

The more interesting contest is between the massive Newscorp, including Fox News and the decision to place everything behind a paywall, and the desire by the Associated Press to maintain their margins by doing the same. Reuters CEO has taken the high road:

. . .Ahearn wrote a piece on a Reuters blog (Via SIA), calling for publishers, bloggers, aggregators, search engines and ad networks to get together and figure out something that works for everyone. “I believe in the link economy. Please feel free to link to our stories â€” it adds value to all producers of content. I believe you should play fair and encourage your readers to read-around to what others are producing if you use it and find it interesting.

I donâ€™t believe you could or should charge others for simply linking to your content. Appropriate excerpting and referencing are not only acceptable, but encouraged. ”

Guess which one is going to win. Hint: It’s not the one that’s getting thinner every week.

Contact Us

Layar Augmented Reality Browser

Watch Today’s Video Episode

Be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts.