Honey, Ya Gotta Help Me Here!

A blonde is praying to God

[Blonde] Dear God, I pray night after night to win the lottery and never do.
[Blonde] Do you hear me Lord?
[God] Child, I hear everyone.
[Blonde] But I don’t win the lottery, ever.
[God] Child, meet me half way at least — Buy a ticket!

Oh yes, it is a dear old joke. Been around for years. But there is a reason I mention it. There is a corollary in today news feeds –

Apple has re-instated the popular iPad news-reading application Pulse. The move seems to overturn a decision earlier today to remove the app because of objections from The New York Times that the app violated its terms of service by encouraging readers to read the Times.

Apple did not respond to a request for explanation, but it looks to be sticking a finger in the eye of the Times, which it has heavily partnered with to promote the iPad.

The Times objects to the news-reading app because it includes it as one of five default publications whose RSS feeds can be read. The Times also objects that the two Stanford student programmers charge for the app, which the Times says violates its non-commercial license for the feed. And it objects that the app launches links from excerpts of its stories to the full Times site in a browser window inside the app, rather than to an external browser.

Read More here

So lets get this straight. NYT who is in the business of pushing news, even via RSS feeds, is objecting to somebody READING their news? There is alot of sidebar legal mumbo-jumbo, but the nit is that it sounds like NYT is objecting to that very action.

So am supposed to show sympathy for the Media, when an organization like the NYT sends a cease and desist letter to Apple to remove the Pulse application? Pleeeeze, that is like driving a stake through your eye and wondering why it hurts. Not only that but there is another old saying — “When you are the piker, stay away from the poker table.” You can’t afford the ante. For most of the industry that is exactly where they are. NYT should be thankful that somebody even thinks they are worth the time to develop the app.

Not one dime of my tax money to these idiots!