Debate on Audio over the Internet

There's a fantastic debate going on at one of my favorite sites, Boing Boing, about the nature of audio content (in this case, the also-incredible This American Life produced by Public Radio International) and the legality and propriety of deep linking audio streams and mp3s of the radio show.

In a nutshell, what's happened is that the This American Life webmaster sent a nice email asking a few blog sites to stop putting links pointing directly to shows in their blog posts. I think she would have rathered that they put links to the show's website in general and made people look for individual show links, which are available free with a second or two of looking around.

In addition there's a further issue of the site only having available streaming versions of the shows. These can't be downloaded to an MP3 player, which some people would really like to do. At least some of the blog sites link to MP3 versions that are hidden on the site, and that doesn't make the producers of the show what you would call ecstatic.

Now the problem under debate is that while the linkers have pretty much given up on this linking, they don't have to. Furthermore, this is all due to some legal implications that are raised; if deep linking is not allowed (because of illegality or courtesy or whatever) then sites like Google are, as they say, 'Shit Outta Luck'. And nobody (except I guess Microsoft) wants sites like Google to go away.

The debate just got really good with this link, the newest one as of this writing: Cory on fan-made radio podcasts: "What deep linking means." – Cory is Cory Doctorow, one of the editors of Boing Boing – where it's now sprawled over into a discussion with the producer of another PRI show, Open Source. But it's been going on for a few days now, here are the other links off of Boing Boing, starting with the earliest one:

Controversy over "This American Life" RSS feeds
More fan-kvetching over This American Life and podcasters
This American Life / podcaster flap: former intern rebuts.
Public radio and DIY podcasts: a PRI producer weighs in.