Quote:
Originally posted by rooster
something I wonder, and I think some people touched on this in the past, is freedom of speech issues.
For example, what if someone patented the process of taking an ink filled pen and writing on paper, or the process of using print to publish a newspaper.
That may sound a bit silly but its similar. Video streaming has been around several years and is a widely used communication technology used on a big percentage of the sites on the net.
Imagine if a company wanted a percentage of money for every paper printed or book printed.
Bring in the ACLU
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This is a good point and one that has been mentioned before.
It does not appear that Acacia is enforcing this patent in a "content neutral" way.
What if they said that no one who is Republican can ever use video on the internet again? How long would their patent be allowed to stand?
What if they said that any political website supporting Israel had to pay five times as much as those supporting Palestine. How long would their patent be allowed to stand?
What if they said that Catholic churches who want to use video have to pay $10k a month. How long would the patent stand?
There are free speech issues about this patent and the way this patent is being enforced.