Back in February, we noted that UK newspapers (the same ones who are blocking aggregators and putting up paywalls) were getting angry that the BBC was going to release an iPhone app. Their complaint was that it was somehow unfair, since the BBC is publicly funded, even though all it was really doing was taking its website and formating it better for the iPhone. Unfortunately, it looks like the BBC has agreed to put the whole thing on hold while it explores the issue. This is really unfortunate. At the same time that UK newspapers are locking up their content, they’re trying to force others to do the same as well. Of course, they don’t seem to realize that this won’t help them any. It certainly won’t help their business model. As for the BBC… well, it’ll be a bit more annoying, but I imagine most folks who want their BBC content will quickly open a browser and go straight to the website. But they won’t suddenly agree to pay Rupert Murdoch to access his news.
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