The Legality of RSS

[Justin Tyme]

I couldnt find many definitive answers out there, so I thought Id ask the legal experts here at BHW.

Everyone says that its not legal to post photos without permission. Take celebrities for an example.

So my question is, is it legal to put feeds on your website from another site? In many cases the feeds include photos, videos and the complete stories. In fact it wouldnt be hard to almost duplicate another website. So is this legal ? Any info out there to shed light on this ?


Thanks
JT

 

[crashed]

If someone has a RSS feed they obviously want the content to be syndicated to other sites

 

[aftershock2020]

I couldnt find many definitive answers out there, so I thought Id ask the legal experts here at BHW.

Everyone says that its not legal to post photos without permission. Take celebrities for an example.

So my question is, is it legal to put feeds on your website from another site? In many cases the feeds include photos, videos and the complete stories. In fact it wouldnt be hard to almost duplicate another website. So is this legal ? Any info out there to shed light on this ?


Thanks
JT

Using rss feeds from other sites on your site is the purpose of the rss feed existing in the first place. There is nothing illegal about using anyone else's rss feed, as long as it is publically offered on the source site, not posted otherwise on the source site or altered in any way as to the presentation of the content or the content itself from the source site.


Hope that helps.

 

[newss]

If someone has a RSS feed they obviously want the content to be syndicated to other sites

No that is not always true, and the #1 reason why websites are shocked when they receive a DCMA request to remove the content.

Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of what an RSS is.
"RSS (most commonly expanded as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works?such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video?in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based."

So you will notice that the intent is not to provide other websites your content so they can plug it into their blogs. But instead provide an update to their users...

That said, unless the website give you permission to use their content, they have every legal right to enforce their copyright and request the removal of their content from your site.

 

[aftershock2020]

No that is not always true, and the #1 reason why websites are shocked when they receive a DCMA request to remove the content.

Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of what an RSS is.
"RSS (most commonly expanded as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works?such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video?in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based."

So you will notice that the intent is not to provide other websites your content so they can plug it into their blogs. But instead provide an update to their users...

That said, unless the website give you permission to use their content, they have every legal right to enforce their copyright and request the removal of their content from your site.

Sure, this is a great point and brings up a good practice to have, with requesting permission first out of common respect for your fellow blogger/marketer.

However, in posting a public syndication feed, as long as it isn't abused and is content related to where it is being posted, for updated information from a source site in your niche market, it is really hard to upset someone enough to have them pull their feed from you as harshly as you are referencing in an ' extreme ' example.

Bottom line, as long as you be cool with it and don't try to snipe the source site content, you should be fine.