It would appear that the renegade world of podcasts wherein traditional broadcast media like radio and television are transformed for the iPod-toting set into downloadable, sharable programs is getting a bit of inconspicuous legitimacy.

Since the advent of the podcast a couple years ago, there's been much ado about the legality of providing copywritten material like commercially available music for free download. Some folks have argued persuasively that a podcast is like taping the radio onto casette, but others have pointed out that it's actually more analagous to the radio station providing free audio recordings of their broadcasts to listeners. So it seemed for a time that the good old RIAA was going to keep copywritten content out of fully-above-the-boards podcasting for the foreseeable future.

While a robust underground of podcasts abounds with copyprotected music (check sites like New York's East Village Radio for a taste of this stuff), no big labels or radio stations have found a way to successfully work around the ambiguities of this new format.

Until now, that is. Turns out that the "indie" podcast Bands Under The Radar is actually a front staffed, programmed and hosted by Warner Brothers Records. The podcast's host is a staffer in the New Media Department at the multinational corporate record label, the show is hosted on Warner's servers and the lion's share of the show's content is not indie at all, but is pulled from the label's roster of big name artists including Tom Petty and the rebellious yet major-label-signed Johnny Cash.

The outcry about this sort of thing from the authenticity-obsessed blogosphere has been swift and severe, though many in the podcasting community see this as the first chink in the wall between their new medium and thousands upon thousands of songs just waiting to be podcast. According to this news piece, members of the Association of Music Podcasting are heralding the unmasking of BUTR as faux indie as a major victory in the fight to legitimize podcasting.

While that may be true, what it's done to provide yet another reason for music lovers to mistrust the labels charged with providing the public with access to great music may ultimately matter more.

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