This new ‘service‘ is taking shows from our and other networks, transcoding them to flash and delivering them from their own servers, not from the originating source, no links to the original page and hijacked RSS feeds. Not cool. Podcasting News is all over them with such fierce language as: “SplashCast is looking into this issue, and it looks like they are making it a priority. We’ll be interested in how they end up dealing with it.”
Pretty biased reporting compared to earlier missteps by others. Where is the outrage now?
Hi Adam, I’m the Director of Content at SplashCast, the aforementioned bandits.  This is an issue we really want to find a solution to and we’ve said so throughout our early communication.  Audio podcasts can be played through our player without loss of stats – we just point at the mp3s on the servers they came in on.  Video we have to transcode into Flash in order to be played through the super fantastic SplashCast player.  I at least have a good relationship with Feedburner so I think we should be able to register subscribers just like every other RSS aggregator does and we’ll figure out a good way to ping the original files to communicate hits.  We’re really an embeddable media feed aggregator.
Also, there are links to the original files – see the little blue info buttons in our players. (Update: not to audio shows yet – oops.  We’ll fix that.)  It’s not a perfect solution, but we’re working on it via discussion with the podcasting community.  We want to be collaborative not antagonistic.
We’d love to talk with you about it too (hey, I guess we are!).  We’ll also gladly take any feeds out of the directory on request – though I think Natalie and Textra are rocking out, so it would be a real shame if that’s what it comes down to. Â
Send me an email if you like.  Forward to a better future with lots of distribution!
yea, probably not the most ethical way of being a video podcast aggregator. but it certainly is easier to find and subscribe to feeds than podshow is
I agree with you, Adam, that this is a major problem. Any analytics, dynamic building or targeting systems that rely on the delivery of content are sidestepped in favor of their service. Feedburner statistics do not report actual usage. In addition, forcing publishers to wait or rely on their analytics is not acceptable.
[...] Adam Curry has a gripe with SplashCast. [...]
Looks really dodgy. The way they’ve packaged the feeds is deceptive to say the least. Might as well just put a wrapper around every article on CNN or BBC and claim the content.
Podshow does something, then fixes it and the lynch mob comes out. This splashcast scumbag does something and acts like nothing’s wrong and he gets a pass. WTF?
I posted a comment on podcastingnews.com but it has yet to show up. WTF?
Just wait Adam… the vocals in the community haven’t been woken up yet.
Three words for you:
1) Pot
2) kettle
3) Black
You work it out!
Molly
@Marshall,
I don’t think you understand what this is about. Ownership and copyright, not to mention a misguided business model at the very least. It isn’t *just* about stats. I believe the links in my post are clear how the ‘community’ has reacted in the past to these practices.
@ Marshall Kirkpatrick:
Grabbing the feeds from other podcasters in order to display them on your own commercial website in such an ignorant way is theft and nothing else. That is if the podcaster did not allow you to do so.
I do not know how this is like in the U.S., but in Europe they would get you sued for this copyright violation.
I am no podcaster, I am a regular listener of about 30 podcasts (about 4 of them are being associated with Podshow). I subscribe to THEIR feeds and I visit THEIR website in order to support them.
I find it sickening that Podcasting news are completely ignoring the fact that splashcast are hijacking the author’s content feed. I really hope the rest of the podcasting world wakes up, my opinion of podcasters in general is rapidly going downhill the longer they sit around arguing “this is ok, they’re reporting stats to the authors” while completely missing the point.
We’ll be posting in response to concerns in the morning (US time) but I promise that we’ll do everything we can to be a supportive member of the community and not an antagonist. If anyone would like their podcast removed from our directory, that’s no problem at all just email me at marshall@splashcastmedia.com
It’s going to be ok.
Marshall,
I have no problem with splashcast (assuming the situation is eventually corrected). Podshow made the same mistake, and while it’s a bit silly to not learn from past mistakes it’s completely forgivable.
What’s unforgivable is that the community has reacted rather mildly compared to the reaction when Podshow hijacked feeds in the way you have.
I gave PodShow hell for promoting an alternate RSS feed and SplashCast deserves the same scrutiny. You would think that SplashCast would have learned from the difficulties that PodShow had upon their launch.
I agree that SplashCast deserves the same level of scrutiny. SplashCast has an advantage that CurryCo doesn’t, though – they don’t have a restrictive contract reputation to contend with, as well as a reputation of elitism in the podcast community. That said, this isn’t a great start for them.
[...] These new features have unfortunately raised some concern over how the enclosures from RSS feeds are or are not being handled on SplashCast’s servers, and whether originating sources are being credited or not. I haven’t tried with images or videos, but document “frames” in the SplashCast player are hyperlinkable. So I don’t see this being a problem for long – i.e., easily rectified. Filed under: Features | Comments: [...]
Size and reputation play into the volume of outrage that is generated.
The Googles/Microsofts get hammered for every misstep.
Likewise the USA, likewise a leading presidential candidate, etc, etc.
Take it on the chin that Podshow is perceived as (a) a market leader and (b) financially well-off. The expectations get raised. Scrutiny is closer.
Adam – the day when you make a major blunder and *don’t* cop any shit for it, is the day you start worrying.
It might also be that you’re a big-ego’d asshole and your reputation in the “community” sucks – you know, stunts like sending Hummer limos to exclusive parties, segregating Podshow from “the community”. Don’t be angry if “the community” doesn’t give a fuck about your network.
[...] SplashCast was taken to task by Adam Curry recently for introducing a feature that created and promoted alternate feed addresses for podcasts. A number of podcast shows were added to this feature without the knowledge or consent of the show producers. Some call that RSS Hijacking. PodShow got hit by the community for the same offense last July. Did SplashCast really have their ears to the ground before introducing their MyPodcastNetwork feature? They do now. [...]
It seems pretty clear to me that SplashCast thinks that their “super fantastic” player gives them the right to begin distributing other people’s content. That is a bit like someone in the physical world saying – “hey, I built this great store and checkout counter, now I will stock the shelves with stolen goods so you can enjoy the experience.”
I know that the software tradition is make it, release it, then fix it. I sure like a different model that includes some serious testing before release. Of course, that might be because I am in a business where perfection is the desired standard.
I do not remember podshow to engage with the community when podshow and its subsidarys starting hijacking the feeds nor did they engage in discussions. Nor did they show intend to work on the subject. Instead it was plain “we tell you what is good for you”.
To this day I do not see a way to listening my podcast on podshow on my profile aka claim it as my own without given you rights I do not want to give you.
Given what podshow has done before I find it highly amusing that actually you of all people start behaving like this.
It splash cast ‘good’ no and yes (in that order). No is obvious, yes for the part of trying. Btw, they did not take over an old stock of podcast feeds from another directory and used this …
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