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Apple Writes Podcaster A Letter Authorizing "Podcast"

gdayworld.thepodcastnetwork.co… — 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” back in October. I thought he was just kidding around but apparently he did actually send the letter and the cheque - to Steve Jobs. Seriously. And yesterday he got a reply.

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  • TheRooster1972, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7yup, we have it writing now so I guess we can all rest easy.
    • knowall, on 10/12/2007, -3/+38This is misreported back then. Apple never tried to force anyone not to use "podcast". Here's the original cease and desist:

      http://blog.wired.com/music/2006/09/apples_letter_t.html?entry_id=1562695

      "Apple, of course, has no general objection to proper use of the descriptive term 'podcast' as part of a trademark for goods and services offered in the podcasting field"

      Apple C&D'd the use of "mypodder", not "podcast" -- which they explicitly allowed.

    • Ireland, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12On the wall: http://www.duggmirror.com
    • Enterprise8875, on 10/12/2007, -37/+3post error sorry
    • colincornaby, on 10/12/2007, -10/+62"Why in the world is check being spelled "cheque"? Even diggs spell check things its wrong lol."

      There is this exotic place in the world called "Europe". You may have heard of this place. It is a little known fact, but there is a country there that does speak English. And they are known to spell "check" as "cheque".

      Edit: Awww, you took off your post. :)
    • i64X, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3Someone thinks they're British...
    • DogmaticAtheism, on 10/12/2007, -34/+7Rest easy?

      Anyone who uses the word podcast is a moron giving Apple free advertising. Apple would be retarded to try and stop people from using it, anyone who thought they would or anyone who thinks they feel the need for reimbursement for using the term is mentally disabled - it would otherwise cost them millions and millions to get the kind of advertising you morons give them for free. They should give consumers something in return but they won't.

      What did corporations ever do for you that you all feel the need to give them free advertisement?

      -Advocate for Netcast
    • RedBear, on 10/12/2007, -5/+27Not just Europe...I'm Canadian, and that's how I'd spell cheque too...although we tend to use the British spellings over the American versions anyway....
    • thespace, on 10/12/2007, -7/+7@DogmaticAtheism - Yeeees oh mighty keeper of podcast history and all things non-Apple cause Jobs is an evil brainwashing genius.
    • tdhurst, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Who gives ***** about how someone spells cheque? It's technically correct and better than someone spelling it chekc, chek, or cheq.

      I can see someone ranting about misspelled words, but bitching about differently spelled (but correct) words is a little too much.
    • pixelsoup, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9All English speaking countries spell "cheque" like this. Except USA. They also pronounce the last letter of the alphabet "zed". Lame because "zed" ruins the alphabet song because it doesn't rhyme.
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7""zed""

      Also makes things like La-Z-boy and anything supposedly EZ make no sense.
    • sendakseuss, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21You better cheque yourself before you wreque yourself!
  • Sloop, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2yeah, but did you notice that "podcast" was in lowercase? They might patent or trademark Podcast.....
  • TheRooster1972, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1That would imply that they were trade marking punctuation - can you do that? Interesting point, but I guess that trademark wars have been fought over less.
  • deansfurniture5, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2http://www.duggmirror.com
  • macbookpromat, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1HAHAHAHAHAHA!

    Awesome, I love how this turned out to be more than just somekind of prank and Apple responded seriously.
  • Enterprise8875, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2Pretty funny, I wonder if it would have been legal for Apple to keep the money
    • GeorgeXIV, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Its called English

      Digg on the otherhand, is American
    • GeorgeXIV, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2i guess your having fun editing your posts after people reply against you...
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3After six minutes?
  • d1g1, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Direct link to the letter:

    http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=309396084&size=l
  • UltimaNut, on 10/12/2007, -7/+29Yay. Now Leo can shut up.

    Now if there was a way to make Steve Gibson stop referring to the day Microsoft turned on the firewall in XP in SP2 as the "golden day" or "best day for Windows ever " in EVERY FREKING SECURITY NOW EPISODE I would be happy.


    • thespace, on 10/12/2007, -17/+3Actually I love the term netcast, very appropriate cause the Zune is on the market and all those people who bought one may get confused. /sarcasm
    • KnightMareInc, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4how many worms was xp hit with after sp2?
    • Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15they also need to drop the "netcasts you love, from people you trust" line. That just makes me want to puke.

      Since when does the "edutainment" the various TWiTs provide require a trust relationship?

      Especially since they often make mistakes just like the rest of us?
    • MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13'they also need to drop the "netcasts you love, from people you trust" line. That just makes me want to puke.'

      I agree completely. Trust is earned, not granted just because you say so.

      I trust most of the group, but my trust for Leo shrinks every day. He really needs to stop the jokes about pay and money and such since all it does is make him look like he is just doing it all FOR the money and gives a rat ass about the listeners.
    • UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I also hate the "trust" line. It takes up way too much time.. you don't even find out what show you're listening to (twit, net@night, etc) until 14 seconds in.
    • EBFoxbat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree with the "trust" line. But I don't recall ever hearing Gibson (who I trust with my life) say "golden day."
  • aule, on 10/12/2007, -12/+8Contrary to the belief of many, the world does not revolve around the US. The US way of doing things is thankfully, not the only way of doing things. Up here in the beautiful north we crazy canucks also spell it as "cheque".

    Edit: damn, supposed to be a child to the original post
  • nandes, on 10/12/2007, -11/+7There's also a not-so-exotic place called Canada, that spells it "Cheque" when you get payed and "Check" when you examine something for accuracy.

    ---aule just beat me to it
    • thespace, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4wow that was weird, did you and aule have like a cosmic brain meld or something?
    • RedBear, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Hah, I just replied to the same above...

      And what's so not-exotic about Canada, you got something against us, eh?
    • ggudggid, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4I like to tell my friend in Toronto that Canada is just the 51st state. Always gets a rise out of him!
    • pero69, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5when you get "payed"?
      sealed with tar to prevent leakage?
      unfortunately, spell check doesn't work if it's a real word like payed.
    • UltimaNut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"There's also a not-so-exotic place called Canada, that spells it "Cheque" when you get payed and "Check" when you examine something for accuracy."

      Wow that makes sense. No wonder why we dont do it here in New Jersey.
    • EBFoxbat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2There's lots of things you don't do in Jersy... like bathe
  • daldredge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Too bad digg doesn't do the same sort of thing.
  • monkeyrun, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Apple didn't authorize "Podcast", they just said it's a generic term that doesn't require licensing.
  • treocast, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Speaking from first hand experience, Apple does claim a common-law right to "all things pod" and is demanding that Podcast Ready, Inc. stop using the word in all its forms (both "myPodder" as well as "Podcast Ready") as it pertains to downloaded media and portable media devices.
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Not good for the remake...

      "Open the.. umm... unit-bay doors, HAL."
  • sshuit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Prepare to be bored by my knowledge of word etymology!

    Cheque
    from Persian 'chek' (چك). Iranian invented cheque 1st . Sassanid Empire. During the first century A.D., banks in Persia and other territories in the Persian empire under Sassanid Empire issued letters of credit known as 'chek'. They are considered the basis for the modern cheque.

    Also of note... the exchequer of the court of england was named for the large cloth which resembled a checkerboard on which he would record the kingdom's debts and assets

    At an early stage in England (certainly by 1190) it split into a purely administrative part, the Exchequer of Receipt, which collected revenue, and a judicial part, the Exchequer of Pleas, which was a court concerned with the King's revenue.

    Originally the Exchequer referred to the cloth laid over a large table, 10 feet by 5, on which counters were placed representing various values. According to the Dialogue concerning the Exchequer, an early Medieval work describing the practice of the Exchequer, the name referred to the resemblance of the table with that of a chess board.

    /end boring history lesson
    • DarkDakota, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Have you added this to the needed Wiki site? or did you gleen it from said site?
    • Hardcase, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1If Wikipedia defines knowledge, then I guess everybody is a freakin' genius.
  • inkhead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9The best part is apple returned his check for $1.
    • capran, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Heh. They'll find a way to get more money out of him another time using Jobs's RDF.
    • SCMacUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They'll see if he wants some more of that stationary
  • chaosmachine, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2http://www.duggmirror.com
  • DDRRE, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Look at the bottom of the page.

    The following sites sponsor this site and help it pay for the costs of running it:

    Online Casino


    lol
  • DDRRE, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Whoops. Doesn't belong to this article. Digg down my last comment.
    DuggMirror:
    http://duggmirror.com/apple/Apple_Writes_Podcaster_A_Letter_Authorizing_Podcast
  • Knightwise, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Good , now we are finally past the semantics of spelling Cheque and the whole usa vs Canada , I'm happy to discover the site is back up and both the original article, the cheque, and the letter can be accessed online.
  • imikedaman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Wow, he just paid off Steve's salary for the year.
  • haggie, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2digg down
  • Knightwise, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Should the site be down HERE is the same story on Dave's personal Blog : http://roostersrail.wordpress.com/2006/11/29/apple-authorize-the-term-podcast/
  • markdr123, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Good times.
  • panique, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Most commonly linked page on digg: "Wordpress Error"
  • cameronreilly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2thanks for crashing our site! which is back up now btw. :-)

    cheers
    Cameron Reilly
    CEO, The Podcast Network
    http://www.whooiz.com/ProfileDetails.aspx?Id=5
  • mollyfud, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0I told you so at the time!
    Molly
    http://boony.mollyzine.com
  • xatx, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1im surprised apple didnt ask for more of that guys money and didnt have their lawyers send a cease and desist for incomplete payment...assholes
    • SCMacUser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3RTFA Noob. They gave him his money back.
  • owine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4leo laporte suck on this.
  • killn00bz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0this is a good move by apple because people wont hate them bcuz of a stupid copyrighted word.
  • daxsymbiont, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1stupid patents and copyrights. they'll be the end of free market in excessiveness, and will signify the beginning of the age of the rule of monopoly. then the system will collapse and we'll all use linux.
  • secretmidnight, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Apple think 'podcast' is a generic term that's free for use by anyone? But they'll sue everything that uses the word 'pod' like it's some kind of magical word? Personally, I hated the word from the start.

    Speaking of words..

    'cheque' is original English, more commonly referred to as 'International English'.

    'check' is American English. America thought they'd be "unique" and change the spelling of a few words, like taking the 'u' out of colour, and changing 's' in words like analyse to 'z'.
  •  

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