Does Microsoft have any stock in adult? They need to sue Microsoft, then it would be all over.

Settling so far we have:

VoiceMedia

and this group

VCA - Babenet
Alchemy
White Sands

Any others ?

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Apparently Quiet received a package and he is in Canada.

They may in time..

right now they're applying a typical chicken shit strategy..
Go after the little guys and the porn industry to get a few wins established, then ease up the ladder to the bigger fish once the courts have ruled in their favor by defaults and due to jurors who don't like porn...

We will be getting with our attorney right after we get back from internext.

I promise to post any info that we get that may help anyone and everyone.


If we, ( the adult webmaster community ) are not very careful, this entire way of life will be ripped out from under us.

CE has settled with Acacia.

But they also stipulated that if the patent is ruled to be invalid, their settlement agreement is void.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Bring their patent claims to Australia and see how they do! :1orglaugh

You have to ask some serious questions of a system that allows a company to claim 'ownership' of what essentially is internet hosted videos and music. Others have said the same thing, but I still find it amusing. If they win, and keep winning due to legal precident it could rip the internet as we know it a new asshole.

What makes you so sure? Have you heard this from your attorney?

If you do biz in the US, whether you're a Canadian or European corp, it looks like they will pursue you. I believe they also have patents, or applications, in long list of countries.

Contact spike at homegrownvideo.com if you have questions. He has spent more time with real life attorneys on this than anyone I know.

are not very careful, this entire way of life will be ripped out from under us.


:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Wow! You're only a year late saying that!! :Graucho

Got mine today too.

I believe phone, cable, satellite and about everything else is supposed to be covered in the Acacia patents.


We are looking at separating all video to dedicated sites for our industry content licensing and leasing and for our consumer sites.

Acacia is demanding royalties from gross company revenue, not just revenue derived from video. At the very least I think we should be prepared with figures that separate and breakdown the video costs and revenue from the other site revenue.

Photos still make up the majority of downloading on most sites. Even if the patents are ruled as valid, for them to be demanding royalties be based on gross income no matter what percentage of the total content video constitutes strikes me as very unfair -

mp4 licensing has exemptions for smaller users and a cap for large users, which makes licensing much more palatable and allows smaller users to make entry and maybe eventually grow into users that can pay ever growing license fees.

Acacia apparently feels they have a patent where it is "their way - or the hiway" - no breaks offered.

The main problem with attorneys is that as long as you keep paying them, they will keep telling you that you'll be the winner.

if you lose.... they should do discounts or refunds. :-)

I'll admit I don't know much about this patent, but from what I get is that it only applies to video. Couldn't some1 simply just zip it up? Once it's zipped it's no longer a video, but a zip file. The end-user needs to manually manipulate the zip file to turn it into video.

My but that was an interesting tidbit in Yahoo. For several reasons, but damn did one stand out.

what is really scary is that one of their sister companies owns the patent on V chips and the major players that use V chips are paying the licensing fees to them.

I would like to see the listing of all 27 sites that have signed their agreements.

I found this article and thought it was interesting.



Article

Also the fact that one of their sister companies also appears to be trying to capitalize on the SARS epidemic with developing a new "drug" to fight it.

Keep in mind a lot of Canadians were recently forced to get setup in the states I think? :Oh crap

I'm sure they have an interest in the proper outcome of all of this too.

I think at the time the patents were issued, Information Technology as we know it was so new to so many people, that the people at the patent office just didn't know any better and issued the patent anyway.

But I think sufficient prior art exists in many forms (hell I KNOW, I used a lot of it), hopefully the Internet Media Protective Association (IMPA) will be able to prove it.

I think they have a court date on the 28th of this month (a week away!)...

Break out those checkbooks and head to www.impai.org :thumbsup

Ouch.
Have any of these companies actually stopped their so-called patent-infringing activity due to this injunction?

This whole thing is just ridiculous, and it's obvious what they're doing and why they *aren't* going after Real Networks and Microsoft yet.
I just wish someone in this industry knew someone high-up at either Real and/or Microsoft and could get one of those companies to file an "affected party" paper with the court.

Not sure if that's the proper name but basically it says "the judgements from this trial will also affect us directly, so we hereby submit our thoughts on the matter for the court's consideration".
It's what all of the big newspapers, etc. did when Larry Flynt was in court and they finally realized that if Flynt was shut up, they would be shut up as well.

It's called an "Amicus Curiae" or friend of the court brief. It would be nice but what do you think the chances are of Real Media filing on behalf of a bunch of pornographers?

I've heard that the Russian mob is heavily invested in the internet porn biz. I'd love to see Acacia go after one of their interests. They have an entirely unique way of settling disputes without ever having to set foot in a courtroom.

The content provider has to license with Acacia, and any webmaster who buys or leases their content also has to license with Acacia... thats what theyre going after anyway...

They also claim that anyone that links to movie content is violating their invalid patents. TGPs, MGPs and AVS' are on this list as well.

Basically, if it's video then they'd have you believe it belongs to them.

That's what I have been wondering. How far down the list they are going to be able to charge. This is rediculous. When you buy a television with a remote control the guy that holds the patent for the remote control only gets paid once. Not every time you click the fucker. And when you buy a car the guy that holds the patent on the tires only gets paid by the tire manufacturer for the right to sell those tires to auto manufacturers.

I was reading that in the package I got. Pretty much what they'll end up doing is not only getting you for linking to other sites that have video and sound, but they'll go after the search engines and directories like Google, Yahoo, DMOZ, etc.. They'll also go after all the ISPs that supply usenet. AOL and MSN will of course have to pay eventually. Even if you don't have any videos or sound on your site, by just having a link to another site on your links page, they will want you to pay for the patent.

That sounds about right.

i received that shit today

Omg, what a joke.

They think they can stop you from linking to sites with movies? Fuck that and fuck them.

Its not just us, there also going after a few online radio stations.

OK, so which judge will stop them??

Probably none. They will get paid off...


I think that we need to spring boneprone from jail and get the family after them!!!


:BangBang: :ak47:

Carrie, my guess is these companies are most likely defunct- even before they got the notices.

Claiming a "legal victory" for the Acacia patents because these 5 companies either did not respond to the notices or failed to appear in court is at best a media tactic (in my opinion).

An injunction was placed because of failure to defend or appear, not because a judge and jury ruled on the facts at issue.

Shit, that is actually really clever.
Just like a movie - can't you star a website about it ?
With info about stock size and shit ???

REALLY !! come on, you thought of it !!

^^^

the above link means NOTHING.
those injunctions were gained because those people/companies did not even show up in court to fight it.

In case you hadnt noticed, acacias stock is up 7.5% today :1orglaugh :1orglaugh