If I typed the words that are racing through my head at this moment this blog would not be fit to read. I am in a pretty feisty mode as it is, but to hear that Apple slapped a cease and desist order on Podcast Ready has my blood boiling. It is very rare that I get in the mood to swear like a sailor (oh geez I am one) but the recent moves by Apple to clamp down and claim that they are the gods of the word “Podcast” really pisses me off.
It makes me so mad that I might have to demonstrate my displeasure with Apple at Podcast Expo by smashing my iPod. You take a grass roots community that has worked very hard to build a new form of media and because the word Podcast really fit, they are now on the verge of willing to go to court to stop people from using the the word Podcast.
This has significant ramifications for my business’s and a lot of other peoples business. You are going to see a very large number of people get up and start screaming at Apple, and this is going to turn into their PR nightmare. Apple is not going to win any friends in this community with the type of actions they have shown the Podcast Ready folks.
As a sign of support I will be giving way a Podcast Ready MP3 player that I received to review at Expo and I can guarantee you that unless Apple reverses course on this there may be a public demonstration of me smashing a iPod at Expo.
If these folks want to try and play games and claim exclusive rights over the word Podcast just prior to the second annual “Podcast and Portable Media Expo” then they are damn fools. Are they going to ask all companies that use the word Podcast in there product and website to change the name then i predict some very serious court battles!
Apple you better wake up and step back a little bit this is not the road you want to go down an immediate an public apology is in order. [Wired]
It reminds me of kings of ancient times that had an idea for a building or their grave, let it be build by the average Joe and killed them after it was finished for one reason or another.
Apple has is products going on a grassroots community and now they are taking (let me put this in a family friendly way) a bathroom break over those that keep them going.
If I could draw it would know just the right cartoon: a door with ‘Apple grassroots community’ and an Apple with a newspaper under its arm going through it.