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So Fucking Banned
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Calgary - Alberta - Canada
Posts: 7,315
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Quote:
Originally posted by charly
Here is the actual article regarding Acacia and the colleges.
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2003/10/2003100301t.htm
Friday, October 3, 2003
Company's Letters to Colleges Say Its Patents Cover Streaming Media for
Courses
By SCOTT CARLSON
A California company is telling colleges and universities that it owns
patents related to audio and video streaming used for online courses, and
that it is entitled to a portion of revenues from such courses.
Administrators at some of the colleges the company has contacted say they
are studying its demands, but they have not yet agreed to licensing deals.
The company, Acacia Research Corporation, holds five U.S. patents and 17
international patents in digital-media-transmission technology. The patents
cover not technological details but concepts like streaming audio and
digital signals on demand from servers to users' machines.
Acacia has sent patent-infringement letters to an unknown number of
colleges across the country, offering to overlook past infringement in
exchange for the institution's signing on to "a special royalty rate of two
percent of gross revenue from each online course that includes digital
audio and/or video content."
The letters close with a stern warning: "If you continue using our patented
technology, but choose not to obtain a license from Acacia, we reserve the
right to seek the maximum amount of damages allowable by law and an
injunction prohibiting you from continued use of our patented technology
without a license."
Seton Hall University is one of the latest to receive a notice from Acacia.
"They're definitely after us," said Stephen G. Landry, the university's
chief information officer. "We get $100-million in revenue from our
courses, any of which can use digital media on the Web site -- downloadable
images, video, sound. In fact, we have had a project to encourage faculty
to record their lectures and put them on a server."
The university has already licensed the streaming programs through
companies like RealNetworks, Mr. Landry said. "I don't think that the
university is going to be inclined to sign over $2-million a year to Acacia
for this license agreement," he added.
Robert A. Berman, senior vice president of business development at Acacia,
said that the company had sent out about 100 letters to various businesses
and organizations that use streaming technology, including colleges.
Through letters, negotiations, and court judgments, he said, the company
has already gotten some 40 adult-entertainment sites to share a portion of
their revenues from video streaming. Record companies, as well as companies
that offer movies in hotel rooms, have also signed up, he said.
Mr. Berman said that until 2002, the patents were owned by another company,
Greenwich Information Technologies, which was purchased by Acacia. The
patents will expire in 2011.
"The e-learning community is just starting to incorporate online-learning
technology into their curriculum," he said. "We think that on an ongoing
basis, these schools and private companies are going to be using this
technology more and more. We are offering them an opportunity now to
license our technology at reasonable introductory rates. That offer won't
last forever."
He said that the 2-percent rate was negotiable if a college was not making
money on its courses. "If people have questions about our company or our
patents, we welcome them to call us," Mr. Berman said. "This is not a
shakedown. This is not an adversarial process."
Mr. Berman said letters had gone out to colleges of all types and sizes,
although he named only DeVry University and Capella University among those
that were sent letters.
Among the colleges that have received letters from Acacia is Eastern
Michigan University. Ward Mullens, associate director of communications for
the university, said the university's lawyers were reviewing the letter and
mulling their next move.
Bill Simpson, president of John Wood Community College, in Illinois, also
got a letter. "It's before my legal counsel," he said. "I'm waiting to see
what other colleges do and see how they are responding. I'm not sure that
we are liable." Mr. Simpson said he had met with officials at Southeastern
Community College, in Iowa, which also got a letter, to discuss how to
respond.
Virgil Varvel, a computer-assisted-instruction specialist for the
University of Illinois system, said that his university had not received a
letter as far as he knew, but that he would dread getting one. The
university doesn't charge for some of the online content it offers.
Online courses are "already a borderline return of investment," he said.
"We would have to stop doing what we're doing."
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bump ...
I need to read this. |