Apple Hits Podcast Ready with Nastygram

[mcadam]

From wired:

Apple Computer has slapped Podcast Ready with a "cease and desist" letter, claiming that the terms "Podcast Ready" and "myPodder" infringe on Apple's trademarks, and that they cause confusion among consumers. The company has been cracking down on use of the word "pod" by all sorts of parties, even though its trademark is for the word "iPod."

full article (http://blog.wired.com/music/index.blog?entry_id=1561308)

Always dissapointing to me when Apple does these things. I my dreams Apple is on a morally higher level than all the others, Microsoft in particular. But I guess they are not.

So, they spend a lot of money developing this wonderful gadget. A gadget which has arguably revolutionised culture. So "podcast" becomes a word. Apple did not invent it. They did not even invent podcasts. Just the iPod that made all this possible.

This fact is earning Apple a lot of money. well deserved too. Why can't they just lean back and enjoy?

A

[iMeowbot]

So "podcast" becomes a word. Apple did not invent it. They did not even invent podcasts. Just the iPod that made all this possible.
There has been a lot of nastiness with this, from the trademark stuff to content providers who are encouraged to publish feeds only as iTunes links (with twisted RSS that doesn't quite work in non-Apple readers to boot). It's very much an embrace-extend-extinguish play of the type more traditionally associated with that company a little to the north.