Dave Gray aka Rooster aka the host of TPN’s Global Geek podcast, has taken the initiative and written a nice letter to Steve Jobs offering him a cheque for $1 for the use of the word "podcast". Legally I think he’s probably setting what they call a "precedent", but as long as the precedent is only for $1, I can live with that. Read Dave’s letter to Steve Jobs.
A legal eagle I am not Cam, but I would have thought a precedent was set if I had actually agreed to terms related to the $1. But yeah I could cope with that.
No kidding by the way; I actually sent the letter (and cheque), it cost me more than the bloody cheque was for!
But you know I was thinking about it today – what if every podcast had to pay Jobsey $1?
This is all very silly (though quite clever indeed).
Apple has to protect the word podcast if they wish to protect the iPod trademark on a whole. If they do not make claims to protect such terms, according to U.S. trademark law, it can become quite difficult to defend “iPod,” “pod,” or other pod-related marks Apple might wish to use. That’s how it works, kids. In this case, the company was going to release a number of “pod” products that specifically dealt with music without requesting a license.
Now that is a SEPARATE issue from average folks using “podcast.” Apple has stated they have absolutely no intention of suing people for having podcasts. This whole deal has been blown WAY out of proportion. People that deal with the Net tend to get all bunched up over these sorts of matters without doing much research.
So Dave Gray… While your bit is clever, it’s melodramatic too. You can keep your dollar AND use the podcast mark.