RSS feeds are freely available. That doesn’t give you all rights to the content in those feeds. Please add context and attribution when incorporating items from RSS feeds in your weblog. Attribution via a title link to the author’s weblog is not enough - add enough context to identify it as another’s work.

Now I don’t want to put any words into Martin Schwimmer’s mouth, but I can’t help but wonder if this lies at the root of his request for Bloglines to remove his site from its service.

If you go to the Bloglines Blog Directory and search for ideoplex, then you’ll find that Bloglines hosts a copy of my weblog. Without sufficient context and attribution to make it clear that the author of the content has no relationship to the hosting service.

I make a full text RSS feed available because I want to reach the widest possible audience. I want full credit and recognition for my writing. I don’t think that we want a blogosphere where those two sentiments are in conflict.