Quote:
Originally posted by basschick
i talked to someone at the legal department of real. he said that to the best of real's knowledge, acacia does not own the patent to their technology.
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To put Acacia's patent claims in simple terms, they claim:
1) There is source content
2) Content is converted to digital form
3) Digitized content is compressed
4) Stored on a server
5) Distributed via network
6) Playback via PC
Companies that make A/V servers like Microsoft, Real, and Apple
have software that covers steps 2-6
The software itself does not cause the infringement.
When the webmaster combines content with the software, the missing piece is added to create the "process" that the Acacia patent describes.
Content Producers are the ones that take content and digitize/compress.
Webmasters purchase the content and put on their servers, and use either HTTP (apache) web server or a streaming server to distribute
So the webmaster is infringing because they have assembled all the pieces together that the Acacia patent describes.
The major snag to this patent is that this process was in effect well before 1990....so the patent is not novel.
So Acacia can't target them for the software, but they could target them for completing the process by including content!
WindowsMedia.com -owned by Microsoft, has content
iTunes.com -Apple...also infringes on SightSound patent
Rhapsody - Real...also infringes on SightSound patent
The big three are aware of Acacia...
Fight the Process!