It must be ’shaft the little guys’ week in podcasting. First Apple takes aim at Podcast Ready. Now some group of nuts is going after LibSyn users because LibSyn hosts a podcast that this group finds.

Seems that this angry group has not only been sending emails to LibSyn but to random other people hosting their podcasts on LibSyn. Check this forum post to see what’s going down.

I can understand this particular ‘watchdog’ group sending a communication to LibSyn with their concerns, but why hit up the users? I know why. Independent podcasters and companies like LibSyn who have shallow pockets are easy targets. One thing I’ve learned in life is that cowards pick their spots carefully rather than taking a consisten stand across the board.

I could use the Apple cease order to Podcast Ready as a perfect example of this. For a year now Yahoo has maintained a service called Yahoo! Podcasts. Notice the word PODCAST in the name of that service. Yahoo is a much higher profile company than Podcast Ready. So one could argue that if damages are being done by Podcast Ready then Yahoo! Podcasts must really be hurting Apple.

But Apple doesn’t have the guts to go after Yahoo. Yahoo can fight back hard and make things look bad for Apple. Podcast Ready will likely see a hit to their bottom line if they decide to fight this. Right or wrong matters not. Once things like this hit the courts it can cost a considerable amount in fees just to get this dismissed.

I know where of I speak in this area. I was employed at a startup company that got sued by one of the major consulting firms just because a bunch of people quit to start this company. In the end we caved in to their demands because the legal fees were too high to maintain the lawsuit.

The community needs to come together to answer these issues. Good thing the Podcast Expo is happening this week. There’s no better time to rally the troops.