I understand your point and playing devil’s advocate to a certain degree by making the connection between distribution and broadcasting, but I think that is really a stretch. IMO Podcasting is really no different that Audible.com’s distribution of ebooks: Pre-recorderd spoken word content that is distributed through an on-demand or automated download service. It is not a broadcast or streamed however, a critical distinction.

Doc Searls recently posted an interesting article “Why podcasting isn’t radio” in his blog http://garage.docsearls.com/node/view/469. The point was raised that the “casting” part of Podcasting and how misinterpretation and misunderstanding of a perceived threat of Podcasting to traditional broadcast outlets could bring undue scrutiny and calls for regulation. That would really be a shame and disgrace.

IMO tight regulation of the airwaves combined with innovation and the internet bringing people together in ways never before possible are causing this paradigm shift towards alternate outlets for free speech, two examples being Podcasting and satellite radio. This “Podcasting Revolution” is in addition to, and really just an extension of, several other social revolutions caused by the internet and mobile technology (flashmobs/smartmobs, blogging, usergroup communties etc).

About regulation: I am not a lawyer (IANAL), but IMO, a MP3 recording (unlike streaming internet radio) is not a broadcast, so I can’t really see how these could be regulated. If I were to dictate an email to you (and CC it to a bunch of other people), record it to MP3 and post a link for downloading the MP3 file instead of hitting the “send” button and sending it off as text-only, how would that be any different than recording a “Podcast”?

Brian G.