This Ill-conceived show is off to a rough start. Apparently the legal team at TWiT may have misspoke when they proclaimed the ‘Screen Savers trademark’ to have lapsed. A cease-and- desist arrived special delivery. Laporte says he will fight NBC/Comcast but our money says he will acquiesce to their demands and change the name. He may even need to hire an attorney, sometimes you need to spend greenbacks on legal talent too. Our guess is the TWiT legal team is actually the ceOH and a database search.
The show seems destined to go over budget anyway. Much like I’d Fund That, we don’t see them getting guest hosts or guest spots to show up on a Saturday without paying money. Their board (see left) does look cool though. What if Kevin Rose cancels like he did for the anniversary episode? This issue combined with the fact that this is primarily a video show leaves us worried about the fate of the show. Maybe in yesteryear with the lovely and talented Sarah Lane, Iyaz with a how-to segment, Shannon, Becky, Tom, a Kiki science segment, Veronica, Justin and Brian, it had a chance. But the new crop of hosts is not really cut out for broadcasting. We assume all the expected fumbling and bumbling is why the show will not be recorded before the live-stream. Podcasting revenue is 80% from audio down-loads you know.
Speaking of legal questions and since we have attorneys in our audience, help me out: Let’s say the lovely and talented Sarah Lane comes to NY for TechCrunch Disrupt. I list my apartment on AirBNB for a crazy low price. I reject everyone until I get Sarah as a tenant. Then, when she is in the shower I enter the apartment to check the water pressure, is that illegal?
UPDATE: They kept the Framerate and NSFW names in spite (never used them) so maybe they could trade those for TNSS? What goes around does tend to come back around.
UPDATE: The issue at hand is not Trademark but copyright. We do believe TWiT infringed on their copyright but our legal experts do not think Comcast can win in court.
As an attorney, I can say technically you cannot discriminate among possible renters. Pragmatically, though, this happens all the time.
As far as your Sarah question, let’s see: that would be entering an apt without permission, infliction of emotional pain, stalking, etc. The list goes on and on. I suggest you worship your goddess from afar 🙂
Holden» Quote comment
I am not quite sure if Holden is joking.
You can discriminate between prospective renters as much as you want as long as it’s not for race, religion, orientation erc. You can enter your own apt whenever you want and almost everything else said here was wrong.
Hey Now» Quote comment
And as I mentioned in a previous post, Leo will be in a shit storm if he fights this. It will cost him thousands and thousands of dollars and he will not win. And when he loses, I guarantee the plaintiff (NBC / Universal ) will request and receive “reasonable attorney fees” from the defendant. In other words, Leo will have to pay NBC’so legal fees!!! This happens all the time.
Holden» Quote comment
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer TWIT. Braggart Leo deserves all the bad luck coming to him. Great column, Ghost Dog.
Big Jim» Quote comment
How much is rent and what dates are free?
Sarah Lane» Quote comment
Why isn’t leo calling nbc trolls that’s what he calls everyone who doesn’t approve of his ideas.
Rocker182» Quote comment
even if there in the clear legally im sure nbc will fight them on it. there a huge company with a ton of money. why would they send a cease and desist if they didn’t think they’d win a fight
j» Quote comment
‘We assume that is why the show will not be recorded before the live-stream’…..seriously? Why aren’t they recording it before the live stream? That is one of the primary reasons Leo spent the $$$ on the studio so his ‘fans’ could watch shows warts and all. The only reason I can think of is that he NEEDS the download counts to be high for ad revenue, and broadcasting it live will take away from that. LAME.
I said it in the TWiT IRC chat, and I’ll say it here again. The New Screen Savers show looks like it’ll have a very, VERY short shelf life. Leo is hoping for some high viewership numbers due to TSS’s old (that would be both age wise and the other thing) audience coming back to see it’s new iteration. Unfortunately, looking at the show board, IMO it’s going to get old REAL fast.
You can’t just bring back former hosts and expect the old magic to return. You need to create new excitement to retain your viewers and only NEW talent can do that. Kevin Rose? Padre? Martin Sargent? Seriously, that’s what you’re hanging this new show’s future on? Martin was a lame host when he WAS relevant. Kevin Rose was the most arrogant, unwatchable hosts on TechTV (he was only there to sell his side projects like DIGG). Padre, he’s cheap in-house talent that Leo will milk as much as he can. I like Patrick Norton, but to be honest he isn’t a draw any more (he’s like the Dennis Quaid of tech, talented but can’t carry a show if he’s the top billed star). On top of all this, they’re not even permanent hosts, just guests for (likely) one episode (with the exception of Padre).
Unfortunately, the ‘Blast from the Past’ segment pretty well confirms the show’s potential for long term success. Whenever you’re relying on ‘remember when’ segments, that gets old FAST. ‘Call for Help’, that’s going to be, what?, 10 maybe 15 minutes of the show, and if the show’s not going to be broadcast live where are the callers coming from?
I’m not saying TSS can’t come back and be a success, but the way I’m seeing it’s format presently laid out, this isn’t going to be it…..but that’s just my opinion.
Marcus» Quote comment
The show will have strong viewership for the first few shows, and then spiral downward quickly.
Holden» Quote comment
Just like Leo’s $6,000 toilet.
Big Jim» Quote comment
Correction on one of the segment names.
It’s “Eat it Mike Elgum” not “Eat this with Mike Elgum”.
Carry on.
Zon» Quote comment
I know last Saturday’s rehearsal for TSS wasn’t streamed on TWiT but have you actually heard that the show that they are going to do live on Saturdays at 3pm PT won’t be streamed live? Why would they keep mentioning the day and time of the show in their promotion of it if it were only being recorded for podcasting?
I guess the show is being aimed at an older crowd who remember what screensavers were and would like to see features like “Undocumented Features and Hacks for Windows 98” to bring back memories of the good old days.
It is being over-produced like previous TWiT shows that aimed to move TWiT in a different direction away from just talking heads and like those other shows will fail.
Geocities Now Tripod Forever» Quote comment
The bottom line is that there is neither talent or personality among the current staff. Mike Elgan is the worst of all. The perfect combination of boredom and smugness. If he wasn’t friends with Leo, he would never have a job as a broadcaster.
Big Jim» Quote comment
Shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic
Joeblow» Quote comment
^——– this
Pmb» Quote comment
What the hell are they going to do when the priest leaves? He’s hosting more than anyone else.
skippy» Quote comment
Leo would lose a lot if he fights NBC. I think he needs to rename the show.
I think this will be a good thing, but sadly, I don’t think it’ll last.
Molly» Quote comment
LEOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
– Fletcher
Peter0» Quote comment
Leo made a No Agenda reference on yesterday’s TWiT. I though he claimed he has never listened?
Larry» Quote comment
Leo lies? No way. Even John Dvorak mentioned on No Agenda that Leo is probably listening to see if John talks about him.
Magic» Quote comment
I’m looking forward for to the new really crappy name… Hoping for ‘bearshare with uncle leo’…
On August 5, 2006, the BBC reported that “free screensavers” and “screensavers” respectively were the first and third most likely search terms to return links to malware, the second being BearShare.
Myriam Joire’s Mother» Quote comment
Any truth to the rumors that the Vatican has recalled the priest back to Rome and that his days at TwiT are numbered?
NchoiringMindsWant2No» Quote comment
That fat turd has been going back to the Vatican for two years now.
I don’t think he’s going anywhere, chances are he’s not even affiliated with the Church. Do we have any proof he’s actually a man of the cloth? His demeanour doesn’t suggest so, he doesn’t even fake priestly behaviour.
Jimmy Jam» Quote comment
This is such perfect karma. Leo has spent months and tons of money trying to bring back Screen Savers and now he can’t even use the name. The title of the show is a big, big deal. He knows he can’t win in a fight against Universal, so he’s royally screwed. Plaster on your phony smile and move on.
Big Jim» Quote comment
I am one of the people who hates Lisa. I hate Mike Elgan too and it is for the same reason. If you are inept and utterly incompetent please shut the fuck up.
I watch every inside twit I can. Lisa is constantly talking about the deals she is working on. For years she has been loving herself for these deals. She has done shit, total fucking shit. She will never get twit on a network or on cable TV, ever. She will never negotiate the rights to the screen savers name or episode reruns. And she has this smug laugh because she so impressed with herself.
Leo cheats on his wife with some low level bookkkeeper and promotes her to CEO with no experience in media. and the fucking moron has an attitude about herself. I honestly believe a hard working stripper does more for feminism than she does. Taking a CEO position from your adulterer is despicable. Woman deserve to move up in the workplace for their work.
I hate everyone at twit who shows her any respect. Including Tom, Sarah, iyaz, shannon, JCD, Brian and everyone else. Anyone who works there is guilty by association and an accessory to this crime.
Hey Now» Quote comment
*standing belly clap*
the real show will be streamed live, just not the practice shows
but it doesn’t matter, if this was happening three years ago maybe, but now with no interesting personalities left at twit it is way too little way too late
yabbazabba» Quote comment
Coho Lisa Laporte(née Kuntzell) will tie the New(old) Screen Savers rename contest about the be announced with a grand prize consisting of a tee spring TWiT 10th anniversary tee shirt…
John» Quote comment
Just call her Yoko Can’tsell
roivas» Quote comment
It’s just going to be another show full of google and apple garbage like all the other Twit content — and brought to you by the replacement-crew that has the gravitas and charisma of a junior high school news team.
no» Quote comment
I can’t help but feel that all of this was planned. They knew that they would never be able to use that name, BUT they needed the word to spread to all the former fans that the show was coming back. They can’t do that if they’re advertising a different name because it will be lost in the background noise.
I think they knew all along that they weren’t going to use “The New Screensavers” and actually did this just to get buzz about the show, and now that everyone knows the show is coming back it’ll be ok to change the name to whatever horrible idea they come up with.
Esch» Quote comment
That would explain the horrible graphics in the opener
DTO» Quote comment
Didn’t Leo originally want to call This Week in Tech the Revenge of the Screen Savers?
The Doctor» Quote comment