Apple authorizes use of ‘podcast’

“Remember in October when Dave Gray, one of the hosts of TPN’s GlobalGeek podcast, sent a letter to Apple with a cheque for $1 for using the term ‘podcast?’ I thought he was just kidding around but apparently he did actually send the letter and the check – to Steve Jobs. Seriously,” Cameron Reilly reports for The Podcast Network. “Well… yesterday he got a reply.”

The letter from “Apple Trademark Department” reads in part:
We are returning your check for $1. Apple does not object to third-party usage of the generic term ‘podcast’ to accurately refer to podcasting services. Apple does not license the term ‘podcast’.

Full article, with a copy of Apple’s letter to Gray, here.

Related article:
Apple squawks over ‘podcast’ use – September 25, 2006

16 Comments

  1. now maybe the sell out Leo Laport can now go back to calling his Netcasts to Podcasts. I don’t get how he has a show called MacBreak, but constantly supports Microsoft and Dell, and now he has Dell ads on the MacBreak website. I used to value his opinion, but now I think he just panders to his Ad dollars.

  2. “Maybe someday (SOON?) the term will be recognized by official Apple dictionaries?”

    This is especially ironic, since the New Oxford American Dictionary, which Apple uses, chose “podcast” as its word of the year for 2005…

  3. Yes, let’s hope Leo Laporte, who is an excellent speaker and podcast host, can get himself back on track again. He needs to remember that the old ZDNet/TechTV days and his “down to earth” attitude are what helped him to become as popular and respected as he is today in the tech world.

    He needs to stay humble. Obviously, he has to do that at the same time as making money, but lately he has been making comments (during his podcasts) which imply that he is thinking more about ad revenue and monetization than cultivating the gritty, personable, and tech-geek style that we all came to know and love.

    I don’t want to go too far off on a tangent, but Leo’s “Netcasts you love /from people you trust” intro that goes into all the TWIT network shows is REALLY annoying! It’s making his shows sound exactly like those big broadcast TV/Cable networks that are the very antithesis of podcasts.

    I like Leo a lot, and I wish him the best.

    /end of my 2 cents

  4. While podcasting makes sense cause it is a successful word that describes what comes from an ipod, I think that some reflection should be given for the Zune as most people will not be casting from the Zune but casting the zune somewhere.

    While “Zunecasting” may become popular I suspect “CastingZune” will be just as (ir)relavant.

    Examples: “Wow he was throwing up and casting zune.”
    “Wow, you sure cast a zuneload.”

    I think it might also replace a brick sh*tload, seeing that they are so similar”

    “He cast a zune so far it hit zune tang”

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