Originally published May 5 2005
Podcasting has potential to add new layer to intellectual property debate
by Mike Adams, NaturalNews Editor
In a column on Forbes Magazine's website, Sam Whitmore chronicles his experiments in the dangers and values of podcasting. After beginning his own podcast entitled "Closet Deadhead," Whitmore presented a check to ASCAP paying for the rights to broadcast music by the Grateful Dead. Upon inquiry, he discovered that most music publishing companies do not have adequate rules outlining what is and what is not out of bounds for podcasters. Experimenting further, Whitmore re-edited a podcast by former John Kerry running-mate John Edwards to make it sound as if Edwards had made potentially disastrous statements regarding the Democratic Party. Though performed only as illustrative exercises, Whitmore's experiments test the limits of the potential confusion podcasts can cause if they are not taken seriously by more traditional media outlets.
- Just when we grasped what blogging was all about, along came podcasting, which in some ways is even more disruptive and exciting than blogging.
- Simply put, podcasting is the act of recording and transmitting digital audio over the Internet to one's computer or MP3 player.
- Researchers from the Pew Internet & American Life Project this month claimed that "more than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and more than one in four of them have downloaded podcasts."
- Air America, National Public Radio and Clear Channel Communications (nyse: CCU - news - people) all podcast their programs, or say they soon will.
- Boku Communications co-founder Adam Curry, a former personality with Viacom's (nyse: VIAb - news - people) MTV, wants to coax podcasters into creating shows using Boku's professional-quality audio production tools, which they'll find at podshow.com.
- Podcast populists, for example, promote obscure musicians by playing independent music not licensed by the Recording Industry Association of America.
- ASCAP told me I needed two other kinds of licenses: performance licenses from the record companies and a manufacturing license, which grants me the right to create a digital copy of a given performance.
- Chief Executive Cameron Sears says his team is crafting its own podcasting policy and will get back to me.
- When you create a podcast, you create a digital file that listeners can save to their computers.
- Most listeners delete podcasts shortly after they download and listen to them.
- Having downloaded the first podcast from former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, I used my digital editing software to make Edwards appear to say something ludicrous and potentially damaging to the Democratic Party.
- Sam Whitmore is editor of Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, a Web-based tech-media analysis service.
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