It's C.

We contacted Apple today about the whole podcast name thing, and much to my surprise they contacted us this afternoon.

It seems as yes, they're going after company names and products that are sharing the "pod" name, not referring to podcasts or podcast production services or the creation of podcasts.

First, Kudos to Apple for getting on this. I'm not sure how I feel yet about the whole thing - but CBS has already switched to netcasts.

I'm torn - podcast is a great term for many reasons, but for others, including growth of the format, making any competing product not able to use the word "podcast" or "pod" in the name limits the possibilities. Quite frankly, I still get plenty of folks who think podcasts need an iPod to be played - which I would theorize is Apples' intent.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. There are a lot of folks who are quite offended by the whole thing - I know they need to protect their trademark as well; and have to admit I would be compelled to if I were in their position. Tough call.

Maybe the middle road for us is creating netcasts in podcast-compatible format. Who knows.