Summary of all of this stuff for those tuning in late:
-Acacia is one of 3 companies that have similar claims to owning the patent process to streaming/downloading audio/video files from a web server
-There are many other patent abuse cases out there that will affect webmasters's business. Some adult webmasters/companies have their own set of patents and may surface in the future with Acacia-like approaches.
-If you have any kind of audio or video on your website, Acacia has INTERPRETED their patent by requiring websites to license their patents.
-Acacia's patents are filed internationally:
http://www.avnonline.com/issues/2003...100703_1.shtml
-Acacia licensing fee structures:
http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/te...t_adultent.htm
-Most of the big players have settled, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.
-Affiliates of sponsors are "protected" from being targeted by Acacia, but if you have multiple sponsors, then you could still be liable for contributory infringement... no one knows what they mean by this or how they can require an person driving traffic to various sponsors to pay license fees for their "technology"
-Many have expressed disappoint that Larry Flynt did not fight for the industry, and the perception is maybe he was only fighting for HIS 1st amendment rights to run HIS business
-Ken is NOT a PR hack
-Far-L and homegrownvideomof are from HomeGrownVideo.com, one of your peers that are fighting Acacia's patent infringement claims. They are waiting for their day in court.
-FightThePatent.com ("FTP") is a website to get information about the many patent abuse cases. FTP is a one-man crusade to bring awareness to these issues and to help find prior art to help invalidate the patent. FTP believes that their is prior art to invalidate the patent claims. (FTP is a techie, not a lawyer).
-IMPAI.org was formed to look out for the industry about issues that affect webmasters.
-FightThePatent.com will be releasing news later today on it's movement to help fight against patent abuse cases.
Fight the Patent!