Almost all blogs and websites are offering RSS feeds - stripped-down, article-by-article streams of content that people subscribe to using specialized software called a newsreader. There are even Web-based newsreaders, like Bloglines and Newsgator, which let people read those articles on a Web page. Wait a second - isn't that what we used to call a website?

Exactly. And that's why there's a massive food fight brewing over who gets to sell advertising on those pages. Publishers already place ads in their RSS feeds. But the tricky part comes when Web-based newsreaders start selling their own ads on those Web pages where they republish those feeds. Weblogs Inc. cofounder Jason Calacanis says that's stealing, and called out Newsgator for putting ads on his feeds without permission.

Newsgator quickly backed down and took the ads off, saying they went up by accident. But Calacanis wasn't satisfied. Why, he asked, aren't Web-based newsreader companies striking commercial deals with publishers to sell and split ad revenue? Good question. How do you feel about ads in RSS feeds? Leave a comment below.