By Tony Pittman – @tonypittman – http://twitter.com/tonypittman
On April 17, 2010, This Week in Tech chief, Leo Laporte expressed concerns about colleague, and friend, Jason Calacanis’ push to rapidly develop and grow his own podcast network site, titled “This Week In”. Leo runs a very successful podcasting network, based on the flagship show entitled “This Week in Tech”. The address for the network’s website is http://TWIT.TV . Jason has been a guest on Leo’s network many times. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of Jason Calacanis until he started appearing on TWiT.
Not many would argue that “This Week in…” prompts those in the technology media space to think of Leo’s flagship show and his network. Still, Leo did acknowledge that he does not own the “This Week In” trademark. In fact, he has made reference to “borrowing” it from a show about baseball.
So, when Jason, a friend and colleague of Leo, came and asked about doing some shows that carried the title “This Week In…” in front of them, Leo allegedly said “yes”. I believe Jason started out doing “This Week in Startups”, a show about how to start up new tech ventures – a topic not too similar to what is normally covered on Leo’s TWiT network. So, things were going swimmingly, it seems, until Jason took things too far and started launching This Week In shows that got more and more similar top topics covered by Leo, including “This Week In Android”, “This Week In iPad”, and “This Week In Gadgets”.
To me, the analogy is like a good friend or relative asking if they can borrow your car. In most cases, the answer would be “yes”. But, if a friend was to ask me to borrow the car, and then take my “yes” as clearance for them to drive it on a 3,000 mile cross-country excursion (taking advantage of my openness and trust), then I would have a major issue.
So, I feel for Leo in this situation. Does Jason have the legal right to do what he did? It appears so. Should he have done it? I don’t think so. Personally, I don’t think he should have even asked Leo about the use of “This Week In”, putting Leo in the position of having to tell a friend and colleague “no, don’t do that”.
Disclaimer: I don’t know Leo or Jason personally. This position is based entirely on outside observation. Jason defends his position here.
3 Responses to “This Week in – THE ISSUE”
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April 18th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I am an entrepreneurp and after a few shows, i eventually unsubscribe Jason’s podcast. I think he is trying to make startup into a gong show and he is doing a disservice to the profession. Leo, on the other hand, is a class act and we have much to learn from him. http://buzz.dennykmiu.com/be-a-magnet-be-leo
April 19th, 2010 at 2:55 am
[...] Jason Calacanis Shocks Leo Laporte by leveraging “This Week In … [...]
April 23rd, 2010 at 11:13 am
You hit the nail on the head with your analogy. (in my opinion) Leo and Jason had a gentlemen’s agreement with the useage of the TWI… name. I recall the episode where they discussed it, and it all seemed cool. While there’s likely nothing that Leo can do, it certainly cements my opinion that Jason lacks any originality of thought. Perhaps he’s got a very strong entrepreneurial drive, but that’s not worth very much without the idea.
If you recall, this is essentially the same thing he tried to pull with Netscape, when he copied Digg’s concept back in their early days. He attempted manufacture a community by paying users to submit articles. I’m not sure how Mahalo works, but I question if it’s in the black now.
If you read his Twitter posts, he’s (as someone on one of Laporte’s shows said) he’s the PT Barnum of the Internet. A shameless self-promoter and showman.