Moreover Terms and Conditions for free use

["James Carlyle" <james@calaba.com>]

Ben

> it is ludicrously simple.  I will do it if no-one has done it already.
> Really! The end of free service from much-loved middle men moreover and
> newsisfree is motivating...

I always regarded Moreover as one of the best providers of channel-based
news and an important evangeliser for RSS.  Your passing comment about
Moreover interested me and I followed up on Moreover's newly revised Terms &
Conditions:

<quote>
2.1. You may not use the Service in any Commercial properties or
applications,including web sites, intranets, extranets and software
("Commercial Use). Commercial Use includes use on all properties and
applications except those designed and maintained for:

personal use ("personal websites"), i.e. non-corporate web sites, hobby
sites
non-for-profit ("accredited non-profit organizations")
educational use ("accredited educational institutions")
developer use ("open source software"), provided it is not being resold or
used within a commercial framework
</quote>

Have their Terms always been like this or does this represent a new
direction?

My take is that users of client tools such as the Headline Viewer or Radio
are not affected by the commercial use clause since most users are using the
tools in a personal setting.  But anyone who wishes to build a commercial
news service based partly on Moreover feeds is affected, as is anyone who
uses a client tool in a corporate setting.

If the Moreover feeds are gathered and republished by an intermediary (an
aggregator), which is not-for-profit, can Moreover's Terms flow down the
syndication line?  How will Moreover police this?  What happens if the
aggregator publishes a feed which is a mix of 50% Moreover items and 50%
other items (from publishers with different terms)?  Are we at the stage
where digital rights need to be managed on an item-by-item basis?

I suppose that these issues have not been tested so far, in that many news
sites built around RSS are not-for-profit.  Moreover's Terms seem to be
thought out on the premise that their channels are homogenous and
indivisible, but the reality with RSS is that it's very easy to work at the
item level.

James Carlyle
www.xmlTree.com