Podcast evangelists often sell the benefits of distributing audio content via podcasting versus other methods like streaming and manual download.

Speaking of those, soon we are going to come to the topic about legal and copyright issues.

The majority of podcasters adopt the “free to copy and distribute” license such as the Creative Commons License. This license allows audience to download and copy content to their portable media player without restrictions.

Compare this to full copyrighted materials which content are under strict Digital Rights Management (DRM) rules. Usually they are consumable only when you are connected to the Internet.

Even though this fact weigh on the benefit of podcasting, as promoted by other marketers, let’s recall that at least currently the content distributed in both medium are quite different.

Podcasts still consist of mainly amateur radio shows, some music, educational content, and audio books. All of the public podcasts are free for downloads.

Sooner or later, businesses who want to sell premium content will disallow access and distribution beyond current technologies. Password protected podcast feed will only solve half of the problems — i.e. access but not distribution.

Until there are comparable content for both medium, I would wait before saying that podcasting is preferable method for distributing copyrighted content.

Podcasting is a great marketing tool. It is new and unique, but it’s not to be confused and compared head to head with existing marketing medium.

Just in case it is needed:

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor I am playing one on this blog.

Related: Podcast Monetization.

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