Yes. Most blogs that come with a blogging tool (like Blogger, movable type and Radio) automatically include a separate 'syndicate' page, which formats the content of the blog in a way that can be read by aggregators. Your livejournal friends list is an aggregator; others are NetNewsWire (mac only) and NewsMonster (cross platform). Aggregators grab the content from lots of blogs and news sites, and put them together in one place so you don't have to load lots of different sites to read them. Aggregators sound dull but are very exciting; you know a few years ago when people were talking about how we'd each have a personalised newspaper that included only the bits we were interested in? It's clear that in fact we'll each just collect little chunks of news from all over that we're interested in and aggregate it.
Legality seems clear for sites that provide a feed for syndication! However, there are some sites (like Neil Gaiman's) that don't, but where a third party has used a script to create a syndicated feed. My guess is that the legality of that sort of tool is much more dubious.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2003-02-25 12:16 am (UTC)Legality seems clear for sites that provide a feed for syndication! However, there are some sites (like Neil Gaiman's) that don't, but where a third party has used a script to create a syndicated feed. My guess is that the legality of that sort of tool is much more dubious.