The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wants your help to beat a recently approved patent on podcasting that many feel is bogus.

“I’m certainly not a lawyer or an expert in patent law,” said podcast pioneer Dave Winer upon hearing of Volomedia’s patent announcement, “but it seems the work Adam Curry and I did in creating the format and protocol for podcasting, in 2001, may have inspired their ‘invention’. It certainly predates it.”

We’ve seen a lot of ignorant new media moves over the last few years – but it looks like photosharing site TweetPhoto and their lawyers could be blazing a new trail. TweetPhoto, via their representatives Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, has sent a takedown letter full of legal threats to podcaster Frank Peters, because Peters […]

VoloMedia, a provider of advertising and reporting solutions for portable media, has announced that it was awarded U.S. Patent 7,568,213, titled Method for Providing Episodic Media. VoloMedia says it expects companies creating products relating to podcasting and media synchronization to enter into partnerships with VoloMedia.

20+ comments later, readers are still talking about it.

Read what others have to say about the podcast patent – and then let us know what you think!

The latest episode of the “Get the Download” podcast features a discussion with attorney Colette Vogele, one of the authors of the Creative Commons Podcasting Legal Guide. Interviewed by Volo Media‘s Jeff Karnes, Vogele discusses intellectual property law, including copyright, trademark, and privacy, and how it relates to new media and podcasting. Colette also addresses […]

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s free podcast of all of the Beatles’ music played Hello, Goodbye as it was introduced and then quickly yanked because of licensing agreements.

Last week, the UK Podcasters Association appointed Neil Fairbrother (of Pod3.tv) their new chairman. Previously the position was held by Dean Whitbread, one of the founders of the organization. I caught up with Dean recently, and asked him to give me a rundown of the things he and the UKPA worked on, fought against, and/or […]

Creative Commons – the non-profit that promotes legal sharing on the Internet – is on Twitter, as of about 2 hours ago.  Music that is licensed using Creative Commons licenses has been hugely important to podcasting and new media – so you may want to consider subscribing to the “official Creative Commons microblog.”

Weddings aren’t all faith, love and happiness. There’s usually a bit of abject terror mixed in and something – be it the bridesmaid’s dresses, the flowers or the dj – from hell itself.  Case in point: A rivalry between two wedding podcasters has devolved into a battle to the death – at least for one […]

The Center for Social Media has released a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. If you have a vlog, video podcast or post videos to sites like YouTube, knowing about fair use could help keep you from getting sued. Here’s a summary of their recommendations:

The Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) has published an excellent primer on fair use and copyright in the context of new media. These are topics that podcasters, indie video publishers and bloggers continually struggle with. A recent example is the controversy over the Richter Scales unauthorized use of Lane Hartwell’s photos in a video for […]