The Magazine launch day FAQ

marco.org

6 points·creativityhurts··5 comments

The "LOL" response to the Pocket/Readability thing comes off as kind of lacking self awareness. Instapaper has profited off scraping content sites for years. Sure, there is an opt-out mechanism, but defaults matter and Instapaper's default is "I'll take your content, present it how I please, and sell that presentation for money, kthanksbye". Now the shoe is on the other foot and Marco is a content creator, he is going to shut out all other read it later apps? What's so special about The Magazine that paying users can't save it to the read it later app of their choice, even if it isn't Marco's?

Maybe he's not interested in promoting competition for his other business.

Of course he isn't interested in promoting competition for other business. I'm not saying that he has to do so, it is his business. But I imagine content creators aren't interested in helping to pay Marco's salary via providing content for Instapaper, yet Marco doesn't ask them. There is a clear double standard: if it is your content, it is mine to use unless you go well out of your way to say otherwise. If it is my content, hands off, bub.

I'd be more impressed if he did allow sharing to competitors and let Instapaper win on quality, not a hard coded restriction. It would show a remarkable faith in his product.

There is an opt-out link on instapaper's publishers page at http://www.instapaper.com/publishers

If publishers don't like being scraped by instapaper they can opt-out. So far it looks like "no major publishers" have.

As I duly noted in my original comment. Once again, defaults matter.

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