The company cloning famous podcasts

• A new podcast studio, Light Knot Studios, is copying the names and designs of 75 successful history podcasts to confuse listeners and attract ad revenue. It was first spotted over the weekend by Dirk from the History of the Germans podcast (using PodSEO, who advertised with us a few weeks ago). He told Podnews: “We all have competition. But, if listeners look for History of the Germans and they stumble on this [visual copy] instead, they’ll be confused and will think it’s not worth listening to. We’re all struggling hard for the first listen. It’s very irritating.”

  • Legally, this is a little like Coming to America’s “McDowell’s restaurant”. The law against passing off - “stopping one trader from misrepresenting goods and services as being the goods and services of another” - isn’t, actually, something that copyright or trademark law covers. Since the audio hasn’t been copied, it might be tricky to convince individual podcast platforms to take action. (Our advice about how to report a pirated podcast isn’t going to be wholly useful for this).
  • The company is based in New York State. The owner of Light Knot Studios is LinkedByte Corporation, which also runs an audiobook app brand Fable FM and a book summariser Winkist. They’re all run by Ibnul Jaif Farabi, and uses a post office box in East Harlem, NYC. Farabi has commented on Reddit (using an account that has been used by him since late December). He’s unrepentant: “F(-) you lot because you don’t like competitions. If your entire business model is being threatened by one person using AI agents, then you need to adapt. Otherwise, perish.”
  • The company hosts its podcasts on RSS.com, and used RSS’s PAID platform to earn revenue from ads inside the podcasts. Light Knot publishes short, daily podcasts produced by AI, to maximise the revenue it can earn; by default, there are two ads placed as preroll, and two ads placed as postroll. RSS keeps 30% of the revenue. RSS appears to have turned off monetisation, but surprisingly the company has not removed most of the podcasts. A spokesperson told us, in a statement: "We … [do not support] content designed to mislead listeners or infringe the rights of legitimate creators. That has no place on RSS.com. … We are continuing to assess the remaining shows individually. Rights holders and their legal representatives can reach us at support@rss.com: formal notices, including DMCA submissions, allow for the fastest resolution." Breaking: they were removed as Podnews finished its publication process.

• Iran is currently in the news, but even with serious economic hurdles and internet restrictions, there are more than 10.5 million podcast listeners in the country; and more than 9,000 Persian-language podcasts. As part of our market focus series, Anahita Davoodi analyses the Iranian podcast market - the big hits, how people listen, and how the industry is monetised.

• The Independent Podcast Awards 2026 is open for for entry. This is the fourth year of the awards, which have so far attracted more than 1,400 entries. You have until early June to get your entries in, but the sooner the better; use code PODNEWS10 to save on your entry fee.

• Goalhanger’s The Rest is Politics managed to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a full interview. Goalhanger’s Tom Whiter explains how it happened.

• In Vietnam, the president of the national radio broadcaster Voice of Vietnam, Do Tien Sy, spoke at a workshop focused on podcasting. The National Radio Festival included podcast award categories for the first time, and Mr Sy said that the Voice of Vietnam is prioritising digital content. The podcast seminar had more than 500 delegates.

• Why do some podcasts feel addictive, and others don’t? Writing for Podcast Sessions magazine, Rutendo Nyamuda looks at the psychology of addictive podcasts.

• Spotify is going to let you turn videos off throughout the app, including for video podcasts.

• Archives: Apart from our articles on history and archiving Dave Winer’s original Morning Coffee Notes podcast, and, with Adam Curry, the Trade Secrets podcast, Podnews has been trying to expand our archive of podcasting news.

  • In Feb 2006 to Nov 2007, Podcast User Magazine was published, as a PDF, from the UK. We’re delighted to be able to host the full archive of the magazine, as part of our archival project. Every issue is available, for free.
  • From 2014 to 2025, Blubrry’s Todd Cochrane published Podcaster News. There are some fascinating stories - from rumours that Spotify might add podcasts to its app, Apple’s acquisition of Swell, and the inclusion of Apple Podcasts as a default app in iOS 8. We’re delighted that RawVoice and Blubrry have licensed the full archive to us, to ensure it remains visible to everyone.
  • And in 2023, Podnews acquired Podcast Business Journal, where you’ll (now) find weekly interviews from people in the podcasting industry. We kept the full archive there, too - Ed Ryan’s fine work still visible to all. New studios for Gimlet; the launch of Captivate; and NPR’s launch of analytics tool RAD, are all there.

Podnews’s Editor is an advisor to RSS.com, which appears in a story today.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Congratulations to RSS.com, which has recertified for IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v2.2.

• Someone’s spoofing our bot’s useragent, which is a little odd, and is using our useragent to download shows. Our bot is now v1.1. Anything saying v1.0 is not us. Until they change it.

• The Podcast Index - new feeds report is a new look into the Podcast Index. At the time of writing, it shows 994 new feeds were added Saturday-Sunday: 120 suspected of being spam or gambling; just 25% listed in Apple Podcasts. Inception Point AI seems to have produced 132 new shows that day. (Shows - not episodes).

Tips and tricks - with the Podnews Report Card

• Is it worthwhile trademarking your podcast name? (Yes, yes it is.)

• Has someone stolen your podcast audio? Here’s where to go to get it taken down.

Podcast News - with Airwave

For your Webby Consideration: Culture Kids for Best Show - Kids & Family. It’s a multiple award winning podcast and nonprofit organization on a mission to make a multicultural mindset the default for the next generation.

With Andrew Sarna, Forthlane Off the Charts breaks down three market headlines each episode, and what they mean for financial portfolios. Based on Andrew’s extremely popular Off the Charts newsletter, this podcast brings practical context on the macro environment shaping your investment decisions. No extra babble. No guests you don’t need. Just the headlines and the Forthlane perspective on what to do with them.