Regarding Mr. Laporte’s push for renaming podcasts

This particular “move” has already been known for a while, but I thought I would comment on it today because I had nothing else better to do. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about

Leo Laporte wants to rebrand podcasts as ‘netcasts’

If you’re a TWiT fan (or a listener of almost any of Leo’s other 200 podcasts), you might have heard in the past couple of weeks that he’s pushing to change the term ‘podcast’ to ‘netcast.’ He’s even gone so far as to start using it in his lingo on the shows (at least on the few of his shows I can keep up with), and is looking to trademark the term. Now before you run off and flame TWiT’s forums, just hear the man out – because I think he has a good idea.

via TUAW

For those too lazy to read the entire article, basically the reasons he gives to justify his push for “netcast,” are:

1. Apple’s recent legal antics with regards to the ownership of the term.
2. How “podcast” in general could alienate newbie end-users, as it is too tied to the iPOD brand ¹ People who hear “podcasts” will think that you need an iPod to listen to such media.

Also mentioned in the article is how Mr. Laporte wanted to trademark the word himself, to the dismay of fans who can’t help but think that the move is for him to line his pockets.

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I don’t think Mr. Laporte’s wish to trademark the term has anything to do with financial gain (or at least I hope not) – it may be simply to prevent other companies do what Apple is currently doing. He’s probably trademarking the term because he himself doesn’t feel the need to go after people who will use it. Hence, users will be assured of being safe from legal implications.

While, I do admire Mr. Laporte’s noble attempt, I’m not so sure if it’s a worthwhile affair.

I could accept his first argument, but for the second one, while true, tends to discredit him all the more. There have already been xcasts representing different internet media. Wether or not you know what they are, I’m sure you have already heard of terms such as “webcasts,” or “shoutcasts.” When the term podcast was first coined by Adam Curry, there were already numerous cases of people voicing out their concern… that it ought NOT to be called as such. Their reason then? The exact same reason Mr. Laporte is giving now.

My question is: where was Mr. Laporte’s support for those detractors then? Why act only now? The second argument was just as valid then as it is now. And there were only a few people [relatively] in the podcasting world when it “began” so I’m sure he heard about those concerns as well.

So why didn’t he do anything about it then? I’ll tell you why, just like the rest of the world, he probably didn’t feel the need to. The whole world was fine with the term “podcast” to describe the digital medium.

While it would’ve been nice to have had a more netural word describing that which is now called “podcast,” it’s just too late.

If there’s anyone to blame, it is all of us, who didn’t take the time to think about the implications of accepting such terms so easily. We are all to blame!

Hopefully it will be a lesson for us all, which leads us to be more prudent and critical when accepting “household” terms.