Syndication, dates, and DRM (was Re: [xml-dev] best practice for providing newsfeeds ?)

Dare Obasanjo wrote:

> Having a publication date and a last updated date would be goodness. 
 > It is annoying that the various flavors of RSS have only one date field
 > for items and it is optional.

> On the other hand, I think having 3 dates as ATOM does is bordering
 > on the ridiculous.

Major news providers delivering news to outlets like newsrooms or Web sites 
use more than three dates.  Here are four common ones, off the top of my head:

1. The date/time the news item was originally created.
2. The date/time the news item was last updated.
3. The date/time the news item is allowed to be published (the embargo date).
4. The date/time after which the story may no longer be published.

There are many others, such as the date/time of the event(s) described in 
the news item, and the date/time the news item was made available to the 
subscriber.  Right now, the news industry is not looking too seriously at 
Atom or RSS except for end-user delivery, though, as far as I know.

If they do give up NewsML and switch to RSS or Atom, they'll either have to 
adjust their rights-management business model drastically, or RSS/Atom will 
have to change to accomodate them.


All the best,


David