I went to the mailbox today wondering if I was going to get a cease and desist letter from the folks at Apple, my month has been pretty bad it would have just added a little more fuel to the fire. I have been playing through my head what the first course of action would be. Well there was nothing in my mailbox but junk mail as I fired up Techmeme to see what everyone else was saying I read Jason Calacanis post.
Jason really did not say Submit but he did say publish every piece of paper they send you, and essentially create a fire storm of media attention. With the second option go to court and battle it out.
Some will say hey whats to loose, well for some of us a great deal. Many of us have built companies that are doing very well that have Podcast in the Title, and I am not about to roll over and submit without a fight. I have a huge audience that reaches a very significant audience each week.
Just to think that Apple iTunes directory was awarded an award from the podcasting community which they are supposed to pick up at Podcast Awards ceremony this coming Friday night. We will see if they have the guts to come to Ontario and pick up there trophy (i could get really evil here) but I bet they don’t have the guts to come get it.
I Personally have a message for APPLE you DON’T OWN PODCASTING and I will support any combined community effort to thwart there strong arm tactics upon the community that has done a lot more for them then they have for us. [Jason Calacanis]
I don’t agree with Leo Laporte on his thought process on this thoughg, we are too far down the road to change horses now and his suggested new name is ridiculous. “Netcast” give me a break were not producing Netcast we are producing Podcast which stands for Portable On Demand Broadcast. [TWIT]
Apple seems like they’re in a race with Sony to see who can rack up more bad PR. As of last week Sony was winning that contest hands down, but Apple is catching up fast and this latest idiotic stunt might put them in front.
I was actually very close to buying an ipod about 6 months ago, but they had just sent some other ridiculous cease & desist letters and on top of that were rumored to be getting ready to put commercials into podcasts on itunes (though I don’t think that’s happened yet). I decided not to do business with them and bought something else. This latest stunt makes me very happy I haven’t given them any money.
It’s really too bad. Apple makes some decent stuff but I won’t be buying any of it, and I’ll be recommending that other people don’t either whenever I get the chance. At least until they straighten their act up.
If podcasters and podcast services like Podcast Ready fall back and give apple any ground on this by taking an alternate name for their company or especially the pocasting medium itself, they will just keep playing “whack a mole” on us with “cease” letters on anything they feel like, no matter how ridiculous or baseless it is.
Podcasters are having to work hard enough for their medium to gain an identity with the general masses with one good solid name. If you give any ground on this and start calling it alternate names, not only would you lose the identity that you’ve fought so hard to gain, but even more importantly it would scatter the space into disarray, because it would open the door to a bunch of people using alternate names for it and a new level of chaos would ensue.
Shame on you apple..I hope this one bites you in the a**!
gosh I hope that “netcasting” doesn’t stick. What a pathetic name. I would’ve expected better from Leo honestly.