Doug Leeds
Co-founder of Really Simple Licensing (RSL) and former publishing executive with a background in search and online media, speaking about web licensing to protect publishers and enable paid access for AI companies.
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40 snips
Jan 27, 2026 • 54min
The open web needs a new economic model
Doug Leeds, digital media executive and CEO of RSL, explains why the traffic-for-content bargain is breaking as AI delivers answers without clicks. He discusses RSL’s open standard plus collective licensing, why pay-per-crawl fails, how licensing can scale like music royalties, and how collective leverage could help publishers and creators get paid.
32 snips
Sep 25, 2025 • 24min
EP 618: RSL vs. the AI Scrape: Can LLM licensing save the open web?
Doug Leeds, co-founder of Really Simple Licensing (RSL) and a former publishing executive, discusses the pressing threat AI scraping poses to the open web. He highlights how publishers have seen their traffic plummet due to AI-generated content and explores RSL's potential to create a fair licensing framework. Leeds explains the benefits of a collective rights organization like RSL, which can help both publishers and AI companies thrive. The conversation pivots on the need for sustainable web content access and restoring balance in the digital ecosystem.
