For most podcasters, the RSS feed is the quiet workhorse behind every episode. It carries your audio, artwork, titles and descriptions to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and every other app your listeners use. As the industry learned this month, it is also surprisingly easy for someone else to copy.
Podcast piracy is when someone republishes another creator's podcast without permission, usually to collect advertising revenue or listeners that belong to the original show. In late October 2026, the industry newsletter Podnews published an investigation showing how a free account on the hosting platform Spreaker could copy almost any podcast, keep that copy updated automatically and switch on paid ads within hours. A day earlier, a separate story revealed a podcast that kept releasing new episodes long after its creator had stopped, using an AI clone of his voice.
For authors, podcasters and content creators, these stories are a wake-up call. The work that goes into recording, editing and mixing a show can be lifted and resold in minutes, and the original creator may never be told. The good news is that a few simple steps make your podcast much harder to steal.
What Is Podcast Piracy and How Does a Show Get Copied?
A podcast gets copied when someone imports its public RSS feed into a hosting platform and republishes it as their own show. RSS feeds are open by design, so anyone with the feed address can read the audio files and episode details. Legitimate hosting companies use the same import process to help creators switch hosts, but they verify ownership first. Usually they email the address listed in the feed or ask the owner to paste a claim code into it.
According to Podnews, Spreaker's import tool skipped those checks. Podnews editor James Cridland tested the process by copying the Podnews Daily feed into a free Spreaker account. The import pulled in every episode with its artwork, dates, titles and descriptions, and no notice was sent to the original publisher. Spreaker also offered to check the source feed every hour and add new episodes automatically, which keeps a copied show permanently up to date.
The test copy, clearly labelled as a test, was approved for monetization within hours. That approval let Spreaker insert ads at the start and end of each episode and place more ads in quiet moments mid-episode. Spreaker's terms allow the company to keep up to 41% of that ad revenue.
Using the public Podcast Index database as of October 24, 2026, Podnews counted 1,778 shows on Spreaker that duplicated podcasts hosted elsewhere and listed in Apple Podcasts. The list included well-known titles such as Crime Junkie, Hidden Brain, Criminal, The Rest Is Politics and The Adam Carolla Show. In one copy, the author name had been changed to a random username while the latest episodes kept arriving.
The Cloned Voice That Kept Publishing
Copying a feed is one problem. Copying a person is another. On October 26, Podnews highlighted an episode of the podcast Hyperfixed about Sanderson Jones, a creator who had stopped making his podcast because it wasn't earning much. Someone hacked his podcast account, moved the show to a different host, cloned his voice with AI and carried on releasing new episodes in his name.
The new episodes sounded like Jones but contained things he had never said. The hijacked show was moved to RSS.com, where it earned $1,293 before Hyperfixed raised the issue. RSS.com then paid that money directly to Jones and helped return the podcast to him. (Podnews notes that its editor advises RSS.com.)
This case goes beyond copyright. A cloned voice can put words in a creator's mouth, damage a reputation and mislead loyal listeners. For narrators and podcast hosts whose voice is their brand, it is a reminder that a large archive of clean recordings is also useful material for anyone with access to voice cloning tools.
How Do Copycat Feeds Hurt Podcasters?
Copycat feeds take listeners, data and money away from the people who made the show. Plays of a copied version never appear in the original creator's download numbers, so the real show looks smaller to advertisers and sponsors. Any reviews, ratings or follows left on the copy go to the wrong place.
Copies can even outrank the original. Podcast charts reward new followers, so a fresh copy that collects a burst of follows can start charting. Podnews published an account from podcaster Lisa Lacy, whose copied show was charting just five days after it appeared. She has since founded PodProtect, a service that monitors shows for unauthorized copies and impersonation.
Listeners lose out too. Someone who subscribes to a copy by mistake hears the original ads plus whatever the pirate's host inserts, and the original publisher has no say over those extra ads. One reader who makes children's audio told Podnews that ads for adult products were running on copies of their shows. Even public domain audiobooks are affected, with hundreds of LibriVox recordings on Spreaker earning money for users who didn't make them.
Are Canadian Podcasts Affected?
Yes, Canadian shows appear in the data. Podnews found a copy of Acast's Canadian True Crime among the duplicated feeds. On November 2, the Podcast Index released a public dataset of lookalike feeds to help hosting companies spot copies, and its list of likely copies includes shows originally from CBC alongside the BBC, NPR and The New York Times.
Of the top 500 likely copies in that review, more than 290 were hosted on Spreaker. In the week after the original report, Spreaker cleaned up only 72 copied shows, leaving about 1,706 duplicates in Apple Podcasts. For independent creators in Canada and everywhere else, the risk is real and the platforms have not yet solved it, so now is a good time to check for copies of your own show.
How Can You Protect Your Podcast From Being Copied?
The most effective first step is to add the podcast:locked tag to your RSS feed. This tag is part of the Podcasting 2.0 standard, and it tells other hosting platforms that your show should not be imported without your permission. Many hosts let you switch it on with a single setting. If yours doesn't support it yet, ask when it will, because support across the industry is still uneven. Spreaker says its importer honours the tag, which makes it worth having today.
Next, search for your own show regularly. Once a month, look up your podcast title in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, and watch for duplicates with a different author name, missing artwork or a slightly changed description. If you find one, report it to the directory and to the host carrying the copy, and ask your own hosting company to help.
Protect your accounts as carefully as your files. The Sanderson Jones case began with a hacked podcast account, so use a strong, unique password and turn on two-factor authentication for your hosting company, your email and your directory accounts. Keep the owner email in your RSS feed current, since legitimate transfer checks depend on it.
Finally, keep proof that the work is yours. Archive your raw recordings, session files and final masters with their dates intact. If you ever need to file a takedown or show that a cloned episode isn't really you, original project files are the strongest evidence you can offer.
What This Means for Producers and Creators
As an audio producer, I spend hours on every episode a client releases, cleaning up dialogue, balancing levels, shaping the edit and mastering to platform specs. Seeing that work copied and stuffed with someone else's ads is frustrating, and it shows that good production now includes protecting the finished product.
For producers, that means adding feed security to the launch checklist alongside loudness targets, chapter markers and metadata. When setting up or reviewing a client's show, confirming the podcast:locked tag, the correct owner email and two-factor authentication takes a few minutes and can save months of trouble later.
For authors and narrators, the lesson extends to audiobooks. Public domain recordings are already being monetized by strangers, and voice cloning makes every hour of clean narration more valuable to the wrong people. As covered in our look at AI characters and copyright, the legal questions around AI and voice are far from settled, so read the voice and AI clauses in your contracts carefully and keep your original files organized and backed up.
Can the Podcast Industry Close the Door?
The tools to stop most podcast piracy already exist. Ownership checks before importing a feed, a quick human review before approving monetization and automatic duplicate detection are all simple to build. The Podcast Index has now published the data to make that last step easier. What's missing is consistent action across hosting platforms.
In a statement to Podnews, Spreaker, which is owned by iHeart, said its rules prohibit uploading content without the rights to it, that it acts when violations are found and that its importer respects the podcast:locked tag. Podnews pointed out that Spreaker does not appear to let its own creators add that tag, and that the number of copies suggests enforcement has fallen short. Several readers have called for the industry to agree on shared standards so this can't happen again.
Until then, creators have to look after their own shows. Lock your feed, check the directories and keep your files. The fundamentals of great audio haven't changed, but protecting that audio is now part of the job!
Frequently Asked Questions About Podcast Piracy
Is it legal to copy someone else's podcast?
No. Republishing a podcast without the owner's permission infringes their copyright, and most hosting platforms ban it in their terms of service. Rules vary by country, so creators facing a serious case should speak with a lawyer.
What is the podcast:locked tag?
The podcast:locked tag is a line in your RSS feed, defined in the Podcasting 2.0 standard, that signals your show should not be imported to another host without your approval. Many hosting companies let you turn it on in your show settings.
How do I know if my podcast has been copied?
Search your show's title in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube and look for duplicates with a different author or host. Monitoring services such as PodProtect can also watch for unauthorized copies on your behalf.
Can someone clone my voice from my podcast?
Yes. AI voice cloning tools can imitate a voice from existing recordings, and at least one podcast has already been hijacked and continued with a cloned voice. Securing your accounts makes it much harder for anyone to publish under your name.
What should I do if I find a copy of my show?
Report it to the podcast directory where you found it and to the hosting company carrying the copy, and ask your own host for help. Keep screenshots and your original files as evidence.