GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Those who have made a difference in the fight against Acacia.....

latinasojourn · 10-18-2003, 12:51 PM

" I've been watching different places and people are getting wound up WAYYY too tight. Now there are actual physical threats"

Gemini makes a very good point. So I will say my piece and get back to work.

People need to look at the big picture. Here's how I see it:

A company made up mostly of lawyers and investors buys another company that holds a patent on something they want to call "DMT." They know their patent is iffy and a bigger entity such as microsoft, or Time Warner, or CNN, etc. will blow them out of the water. So they hold the patent and do nothing, and watch and lay in wait while the primary users of web video (adult webmasters) proliferate.

And because this company (acacia) knows their patent probably will be invalidated if they go against a large entity, they develop a business model which specifically targets entities they believe will not fight, and hopes that it can sign up thousands of small webmasters at $1500/year or 2% of the gross simply through intimidation. After all, if they could do that it would establish precedent, appease investors, stock would rise, and THEN they could go after the big guys.

So the company develops their marketing department, and they hire copywriters, and consult with direct marketing firms and develop a sales package. And their initial test mailing does not achieve the desired result. Someone at the conference table in the inner sanctum of acacia calls it going after "the low-hanging fruit". Major miscalculation.

You see, if acacia had spent more time actually doing research on who they were trying to shake down they would find out that perhaps 85% of their potential licensees don't make a living wage using their "DMT" technology. Maybe the average adult webmaster made some serious money at one time, but the problem is acacia is hitting the webmaster group about 4 years too late. VERY FEW webmasters make even 50K/year, and even less make over 100K/year. Of course if they had really done research they would find out about general traffic trends in the adult market. The business is very soft, traffic is mostly down (in the aggregate) and doing research on alexa would have shown them that.

But the fancy first printing on coated stock is already in the mail. So acacia thinks let's put a good face on this, do some quick damage control, and see if we can save this.

So they do an under the table deal with 47 licensees. And it's a PR stunt which everyone with any sense sees right through.

After all, acacia is dealing with a group called adult webmasters. These are guys that sell PORN for a living. If anything this is a demographic that doesn't easily do what it's told...if anything this is a demographic of independent-minded mavericks who have mostly an outlaw mentality.

I suspect that the movers and shakers of acacia are mostly ivy league college boys in their 30's. They have not lived long enough to know much about the HISTORY of organized pornography in the United States. True, porn today in America is fairly mainstream, run 95% by fairly mainstream people...but 5% of the money in porn is controlled by a VERY unsavory bunch.

Imagine what would happen if Tony Soprano was asked for 2% of his take. Don't believe me? check the history, and listen to the US Dept. of Justice. There is an element in the USA adult business that has criminality attached to it. It is small, but it is there. Check the history of the players. Some of them do not settle things in a courtroom. Some of them still have their hands in adult. Go back to a major city just a few years ago where people were murdered and adult bookstores and buildings were burned down. Check the history.

"low-hanging fruit"? Maybe not. And some fruit that might be dangerous to pick.

And then there is the other problem with the acacia business model. The sheer number of the litigants.

And now it appears that acacia cannot collect license fees just by mailing demand letters. They already tried that and met with abject failure. The simple fact is that acacia will have to SUE tens of thousands of mostly modest income webmasters, obtain judgments, and then collect on the judgments. This is a daunting, even impossible task due to the sheer number of litigants.

Read carefully now. Here is how a lawsuit works.

1. You must be served properly with a summons and complaint. Mailing you a fancy packet means nothing, it is a SALES piece. Do not come on this or any other board and say you received a packet or ANY communcation from acacia.

2. If you are sued, respond to it. You will probably lose in court unless you want to spend plenty of $ on a specialist patent attorney. DON'T spend the money, appear in pro per and demand a jury trial. You will still lose eventually, but acacia cannot sue 10,000 webmasters all over America who actually appear in pro per. It's not cost effective for them. They are betting you will be intimidated to pay. Show them wrong, force them into court and appear in pro per on every little case. It is your constitutional right and it will break their back faster than anything else you can do.

10-18-2003, 12:51 PM
latinasojourn Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 3,191	" I've been watching different places and people are getting wound up WAYYY too tight. Now there are actual physical threats" Gemini makes a very good point. So I will say my piece and get back to work. People need to look at the big picture. Here's how I see it: A company made up mostly of lawyers and investors buys another company that holds a patent on something they want to call "DMT." They know their patent is iffy and a bigger entity such as microsoft, or Time Warner, or CNN, etc. will blow them out of the water. So they hold the patent and do nothing, and watch and lay in wait while the primary users of web video (adult webmasters) proliferate. And because this company (acacia) knows their patent probably will be invalidated if they go against a large entity, they develop a business model which specifically targets entities they believe will not fight, and hopes that it can sign up thousands of small webmasters at $1500/year or 2% of the gross simply through intimidation. After all, if they could do that it would establish precedent, appease investors, stock would rise, and THEN they could go after the big guys. So the company develops their marketing department, and they hire copywriters, and consult with direct marketing firms and develop a sales package. And their initial test mailing does not achieve the desired result. Someone at the conference table in the inner sanctum of acacia calls it going after "the low-hanging fruit". Major miscalculation. You see, if acacia had spent more time actually doing research on who they were trying to shake down they would find out that perhaps 85% of their potential licensees don't make a living wage using their "DMT" technology. Maybe the average adult webmaster made some serious money at one time, but the problem is acacia is hitting the webmaster group about 4 years too late. VERY FEW webmasters make even 50K/year, and even less make over 100K/year. Of course if they had really done research they would find out about general traffic trends in the adult market. The business is very soft, traffic is mostly down (in the aggregate) and doing research on alexa would have shown them that. But the fancy first printing on coated stock is already in the mail. So acacia thinks let's put a good face on this, do some quick damage control, and see if we can save this. So they do an under the table deal with 47 licensees. And it's a PR stunt which everyone with any sense sees right through. After all, acacia is dealing with a group called adult webmasters. These are guys that sell PORN for a living. If anything this is a demographic that doesn't easily do what it's told...if anything this is a demographic of independent-minded mavericks who have mostly an outlaw mentality. I suspect that the movers and shakers of acacia are mostly ivy league college boys in their 30's. They have not lived long enough to know much about the HISTORY of organized pornography in the United States. True, porn today in America is fairly mainstream, run 95% by fairly mainstream people...but 5% of the money in porn is controlled by a VERY unsavory bunch. Imagine what would happen if Tony Soprano was asked for 2% of his take. Don't believe me? check the history, and listen to the US Dept. of Justice. There is an element in the USA adult business that has criminality attached to it. It is small, but it is there. Check the history of the players. Some of them do not settle things in a courtroom. Some of them still have their hands in adult. Go back to a major city just a few years ago where people were murdered and adult bookstores and buildings were burned down. Check the history. "low-hanging fruit"? Maybe not. And some fruit that might be dangerous to pick. And then there is the other problem with the acacia business model. The sheer number of the litigants. And now it appears that acacia cannot collect license fees just by mailing demand letters. They already tried that and met with abject failure. The simple fact is that acacia will have to SUE tens of thousands of mostly modest income webmasters, obtain judgments, and then collect on the judgments. This is a daunting, even impossible task due to the sheer number of litigants. Read carefully now. Here is how a lawsuit works. 1. You must be served properly with a summons and complaint. Mailing you a fancy packet means nothing, it is a SALES piece. Do not come on this or any other board and say you received a packet or ANY communcation from acacia. 2. If you are sued, respond to it. You will probably lose in court unless you want to spend plenty of $ on a specialist patent attorney. DON'T spend the money, appear in pro per and demand a jury trial. You will still lose eventually, but acacia cannot sue 10,000 webmasters all over America who actually appear in pro per. It's not cost effective for them. They are betting you will be intimidated to pay. Show them wrong, force them into court and appear in pro per on every little case. It is your constitutional right and it will break their back faster than anything else you can do.