I found a great article about Acacia at The Thinkreel board. Travis (the author) thinks Acacia will be out of business soon because its all o lot of swank what they are doing.
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http://www.thinkreel.com/showthread....&threadid=2899
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So, about my Acacia packet. (very long)
So, I received my little packet from Acacia Media Technologies Corporation a few days ago. Thrilling. For those of you that have not had the pleasure of receiving such a prize, I?ll share it with you. First let me say that I am not a huge player in the pornography industry, I run one AVS site, mainly for fun and because my good friend Ryan (of
www.madsights.com) sort of got me into it. My real job is Vice President of Ballyhoo Group and President/CEO of VCNO, Inc. Both elevated technology corporations based in South Florida. I?m also on the Board of Directors of a large multimedia corporation in New York, NY (which I won?t list for reasons, but I?m sure you could figure out).
The cover letter is somewhat harsh, in my opinion. It states that they own 5 US Patents in their ?portfolio? and 17 International Patents covering the transmission and receipt of digital audio and video content via the internet.
It goes on to explain that since they?re such generally nice and generous citizens, they will waive substantial past infringement and license their patents at their existing introductory royalty rates. Can you believe that? That line, as far as I?m concerned, confirms that this is a frivolous attempt at gaining cash settlements from a small group of industry professionals.
I?ve been doing some research on this. I looked up their patents which I assumed would be filled with tech jargon in an attempt to mislead the patent offices. This, of course, was correct.
The problem with the patent system today, especially the USPO, is that these people simply do not understand the technology. I?m completely confident I could patent ?the Internet? if I managed to fill it with enough technology terminology and made it as hard as possible to understand. This system needs to change if we?re to get away from this insanity we?re seeing.
For example, their patent (Patent # 6144702) states:
?A system of distributing video and/or audio information employs digital signal processing to achieve high rates of data compression.?
It goes on in the claims to explain very broadly how this works. It also includes a lot of information regarding delivery and storage, such as ?a source material library storing a portion of at least one data file.?
The scope of these extensive papers is so perverse that the cable or satellite television you probably have the background in your room right this very second, is in fact breaking the law according to Acacia.
Cable television IS distributed video and/or audio information which uses digital signal processing to achieve high rates of data compression.
Additionally, don?t forget the method of storing data for playback.
As affirmed in their patent: ?At the present time [November 7, 2000], only a video cassette recorder (VCR) or a laser disk player (LDP) allow a viewer to enjoy control over selection of particular audio/video material. Using either a VCR or an LDP requires the viewer to obtain a video tape either by rental or by purchase. Remote accessing of the material has not yet been integrated into an efficient system.?
Hmm? This is interesting. I know of 3 digital television providers in Norway alone that offer on-demand video for digital cable consumers. Under their International Patents, this would clearly be infringement.
TiVo may also be under this. Crazy isn't it? Almost every media technology involving our television systems is at work here. Unless of course you're still using "rabbit-ears" which I have a feeling some of you are.
Of course there?s the obvious, MSNBC, CNN, Microsoft, Akamai, Viacom, and on and on and on.
So what?s the problem and the moral of this article?
The problem is the USPO is currently BROKEN. They simply do not have the resources to scrutinize the real technology at labor in most of these patents. Therefore, it?s possible to get a patent for almost anything in internet technology if you utilize precise doublespeak.
Why doesn?t Acacia go after some of this giants that are racking up the infringement violations by the millions. Akamai does literally millions of streams every month. Not only are they using encoding/compression to produce higher data transfer, but they?re also using storage solutions. This is completely against Acacia?s patents.
Let me tell you why.
Acacia lists a few companies in their opening letter that have purchased license agreements from them. Are these companies paying millions of dollars? No.
But why not? Why, if these patents are so strong, can?t Acacia just say, ?we want $500 million a year for a license or you must stop all processes that involve patent infringement.?
Because if they said that, the big guns would load up, cock, and fire a barrage of law expenses that Acacia wouldn?t be able to handle.
Why don?t know (correct me if I?m wrong, please) what LFP, Inc. (Hustler), Trade News Corporation, Matrix Content, Vivid Pictures, or Platinum eMedia have paid for this license.
If it were me, I would go ahead and save myself the outstanding court costs and offer them a price I know they can afford. Let?s take LFP, for example.
If I go to LFP and claim patent infringement for streaming media (seems crazy when you say it, doesn?t it?) requesting $1 Million, they?re going to take me to court. Even if it costs them $950,000 in court costs, it?s still worth it for them. Now I have no money, and if the court rules against me, I?m screwed.
But if I offer it to them for an easy $10,000, they?ll jump, just to make it go away. Now I have $10k in my pocket, but MUCH more important, I can send letters to 500 webmasters that says Vivid Pictures agrees that this is for real. That?s worth a lot more than $10k. Even if I sold it to them for $1. You dig?
Moving forward?
I?ve written an email to a very good friend of mine, who knows my congressman well. I?m also trying to get in touch with some people in the California government, to terminate this problem (haha). Unfortunately, I imagine California is going to stick by this, because they?re like their own county, it?s ridiculous.
I?ve contacted my on-staff lawyer and she is going over everything. I should have a ton of information from her later this week and we?ll see what comes up.
I will keep you posted. Thanks for reading this.
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http://www.thinkreel.com/showthread....&threadid=2899
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I just wanted to share this great article with everyone here at GFY. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did!
Pete