Apple has started its quest to hand out cease & desist letters to anyone using the word “pod” in their company name. Some of the casualties are:
- Tightpod - A company that markets a line of decorative, patterned laptop protectors.
- Podcast Ready - A company that helps the user download podcasts to their non-iTunes podcast player.
- Profit Pod - (not even related to podcasting) A device that tracks arcade machines for money and then wirelessly transmit the information to a PDA or notebook computer.
When money’s no longer an issue and your legal team is struck with boredom, hit the very people evangelizing your products and services with lawsuits.
Hmmm…this reminds me of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Napster. Instead of looking at the reasons why people want to download music for free and developing a paid model with Napster, RIAA instead takes Napster to court, gets it shut down, then starts to sue individual downloaders.
Absurd. Apple is fighting the very thing making its products and its company a success. Utterly strange.
Technorati: podcasting
September 23rd, 2006 at 8:52 am
Are you kidding me? Talk about bully behavior! What about all the podcasts with pod in the name… what about YOU Leesa? What do you do if Apple comes knocking on your door? That’s just freaky.
September 24th, 2006 at 10:01 am
I thought about that. I guess with the loads of money I’m sitting on, I’ll just have to fight it. I can’t be bothered changing all my links again if I have to use a new domain name.