Zite has been pulling stories from all these publishers without their approval. The key issue here for the publishers is that their content is being stripped and they arent seeing any of the financial rewards they would see if users were reading their web versions.

“By systematically reformatting, republishing, and redistributing our original content on a mass commercial scale without our permission in your iPad application, Zite directly and adversely impacts our businesses,” the letter says.

Zite has promised that they will change and comply with publishers requests, but I cant see this startup gaining any traction from here on out. Overall, its a shame!

• Virgin Turning Their Project iPad Magazine into a Free App Thanks to Sponsorship – March 17, 2011
• Music Hunter Wants You to Pay for a Music Discover App That Doesnt Stream Full Tracks – April 26, 2011
• Create Your Own Native Looking iPhone and iPad App Using HTML, CSS and Javascript – April 8, 2011
• Timbuktu: An iPad Magazine Specifically Design for Kids – April 8, 2011
• TeamViewer 6 Available for Android – November 28, 2010

Zite Being Sued by Publishers over Content Scraping originally appeared on: Crenk
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Click on the image to enlarge

This chart by Michael DeGusta provides a great illustratation of why the New York Times paywall is going to fail. I know there are a lot of reports that people are willing to pay for news, but Im not sure they are happy to pay this much.

In the chart you will notice annual prices from a variety of services in different sectors. All of these services allow users to access via the web and across multiple devices.

For instance, I used Rhapsody’s $14.99 plan which allows 3 devices (e.g. iPhone & iPad), as opposed to their $9.99 plan that allows only one. I think that’s a fair apples-to-apples comparison of how much different providers are asking for full access. Though in case there was any doubt how out of line The Times’ pricing is, even their “NYTimes.com + Tablet App” (i.e. no phone app access) is still 25% higher than the Wall Street Journal’s all access plan.

I’ve also added the explicit names of each subscription plan below for more clarity, as well as corrected the annual Dropbox price.

Sources

Here are the prices & source links I used:

• Google – Apps for Business: $50/year
• MobileMe – Individual: $99/year
• Dropbox – Pro 50: $99/year
• Pandora – One: $36/year
• SiriusXM – Internet Radio: $12.95/month
• Rhapsody – Premier Plus: $14.99/month
• Amazon – Prime: $79/year
• Netflix – Unlimited Plan, No DVDs: $7.99/month
• Hulu – Plus: $7.99/month
• The Economist – Digital Subscription: $110/year
• The Wall Street Journal – Digital Plus: $3.99/week
• The New York Times – All Digital Access: $35/4 weeks

Read the full article here.

• Zite Being Sued by Publishers over Content Scraping – April 6, 2011

Digital Subscription Prices Visualized: Why New York Times Paywall will Fail originally appeared on: Crenk
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