I'm being threatened with litigation by Acacia Media
 

I just got a big thick package in the mail from Acacia Media saying that my website www.chezchris.ca is infringing on patents owned by them in regards to my site having downloadable movies.

I heard about this company on some webmaster newsletter I recently received. It said Acacia was going after the big guys -- what the fuck do they want with me???

Should I be worried about this?

Is this patent thing just a load of bullshit?

Anyone know any good patent lawyers in Toronto???


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fuck don't tell them my website
I have downloadable movies as well :321GFY

sad thing is that yes you have to take them seriously. there is an adult industry group led by Holio and Homegrown Video that is your best source for advice about what to do about Acacia. I think they have a common legal defense fund but if Acacia is actually going to take a whole bunch of cases to trial in the U.S and Canada i don't think this legal fund is going to be able to be stretched that far.

Hopefully they will lose their first test case and it will take the wind out of their sails. If they win, most people will pay the license fee i think, you can't defend this with some shopping mall lawyer, very specialized type of law.


contact somebody at HomegrownVideo or Holio.

well, since that patent would be like a joke to a court, think about this:

did Acacia invented file transfers (downloads)? did they invent the movie? then how can they take patent on it? :)

well, perhaps I should patent how to brush teeth - and send out every man and woman in the western world who's got a toothbrush a mail and let them know they are infringing my patent on brushing teeths.

just my :2 cents:

Does anyone know of any Canadian webmasters / content producers joining together to fight this???

acacia currently doesn't claim they ahve patents in Canada. Check their website

acaciaresearch.com

schilli, contact Jeff at SunUpMedia, icq: 394543
He is in contact with the holio attorneys and can get you caught up on whats going on

you are going to be sent to jail if you dont take this shit down now lol , I wonder how long before the owners of this acacia are found with some legal trouble that will make them stop this bullshit I guess the second they will step on an israilies business they can go eat shit

wait, so like if someone can download *any* sort of media, not even streaming, they apparently have a patent on it?

that's kinda what i got by their website.

it's scary that something like that got patented, considering it was around before they were, yes? like, LONG before...

fucking publicity stunts, what if the judge is a porn webmaster? would they sue him too?

Fucking bullshit that is all it is. How the fuck did they get a patent for this?

Their deal isn't about downloadable movies..

It's all about viewing video over the net.. and the process used to do so.

Downloading movies is just downloading files..

No from what I heard whether they are streamed or not you owe even if they are zipped. If you have streaming media from someone else like holio on your site. Holio pays and you pay, its fucked basically. The fucked up thing that even if your right,it costs so fucking much to go to court most will eventually roll over if they start winning I pray it doesnt come to that.

They are testing US and Canada waters & some random offshore sites. May I say again, they will not get too far in court rooms. There's the reason why they will fail within EU and that's the full stop for this patent(s).

I have played with Playb** and agreed with them. It was my fault, but Acasia is not and I'm not going to agree with them. Actually it seems that they're not going to go after my little sites, but it doesn't mean that I can't go after them for numerous small things starting form very bad side of law. What is means? No, there's no idea to send legion of lawyers to hunt em... but I may have a possibility to start goverment / EU related process which is not a joke even for Acasia. Let's see...

If they were threatening this shit to Bill Clinton they'd be dead already... :1orglaugh

Welcome to the club. Lightspeed Media got serverd Tuesday afternoon.

This company purchased the copyright.

The copyright has nothing to do with the Internet, but other areas. However, they are trying to make it seem as if we are using their copyright on the Internet.

They are coming after adult webmasters because they think we will be easy targets. They've under estimated us. This is a fucking cash cow business. They made $80 million last year.

That's a drop in the bucket.

So, to avoid getting annoyed with thier BS.... do this?


1) don't 'stream' movies just make them downloadable mpegs/avis?

and/or

2) Host/serve them from an offshore corp/host media company?

RocHard, I hope like hell someone counter-sues the FUCK out of those pricks to drop their 80m in profit down to like 10m ;)

It is all bullshit. It depends on how you look at s omething.

Someone can download a AVI from my website and because 'the surfers client' plays the video while it is downloading the 'file' becomes 'streaming' ?

Whether you do true streaming or mere video downloads it is one in the same. The surfer is still downloading. The 'streaming' server still (in most cases) serves the file, in whatever timeline, to the surfer.

If you do real streaming just buffer it to the HDD first then claim the user is 'downloading' and not streaming, and whether the video shows on their side while it downloads is beyond you and to go sue M$ or Apple.

the big sites need to get some money together and get the best patent legal team in the country to squash these bloodsucking fucks once and for all.

Hopefully those getting sued find some really strong "prior art".. it should be able to shut their asses down.

Fucking shakedown tactics... ridiculous!

Is this letter similar to the one you recieved?? http://www.chillingeffects.org/ecom/...i?NoticeID=546

I do not think that this patent even exists... how can it. They do not own the movie formats.....They are claiming that they own the rights to transferring digital audio and video media.

" We own a portfolio of five U.S. and seventeen International Patents covering the transmission and receipt of digital audio and video content via various means, including the Internet. We call the technology covered by these patents "DMT" or Digital Music Transmission technology. Our engineers and lawyers have reviewed the streaming services made available at the radioio.com website and have determined that these activities are covered by our DMT Patents."

well, what about companies like real media... they have thier own formats and players. They have something that they can patent. This other company would be claiming that they can sue real media for using real media technology!!

They would also be claiming that they could sue yahoo, cnn, and even kazaa!!!

I think its a scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


thats just my opinion

New artical
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t278-s2130002,00.html


Patent search
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html

I tried searching a few things like the company name and the parrent company name and I do not see any thing relating to media transfer. They have a few media security related patents.

Anyone got a patent number????

Bottom line and everyone knows it is that Acacia sucks, sad thing is they know it to.

I recieved the initial paperwork a few months ago, guess it's time to get in touch with Holio & Homegrown' peeps, add to the fund and get ready to teach Acacia that by picking Adult they just might have picked the wrong dog's to fuck with.

I believe there were initially 29 of us originally served, has this number gone up and more served recently?

:BangBang: Acacia

Acacia are doing nothing wrong LEGALLY. They have a patent on the process of downloading video. They are just defending something they own. The problem is with the idiots at the patent office and your legal system. I doubt if they would go after anyone in a country where the case would be reviewed by a judge before people spent millions on it.

They know it was already happening when the patent was registered and they know they did nothing to develope it or protect it (sue infringers) until now.

All these points would lose them the case in court. However they never will go after anyone who will have enough money to defend themselves in court. The Microsoft's of the world are safe because a bully only bullies the weak. They know they will lose it if they go after someone who will fight them, best thing is not to go after them.

Unless someone organises a big fighting fund and team to back it this will continue and Acacia will make a bundle just charging those too weak to defend themselves.

Remember Acacia are doing nothing legally wrong, what are your chances of getting costs or your money back? They are also a company of lawyers, they work for themselves.

Put beside any movie link on your page "Right Click and Select Save As..."

The movie is no longer streaming, and if the copyright is violated, it is violated by the user. Sue them. <shrug>

Hell, put it anywhere on your page. Legally, you can't are not liable to "prevent" patent infringement by providing the means to do so. Just like I can't sue Adobe if someone uses Photoshop to make an exact copy of artwork I copyrighted.


Pretty ballsy what they are doing. If I was trying some dumb stunt like this I better have some sort of mountain fortress NORAD style to hide in

While we're at it, I'm gonna go copyright the process of shaving sales from affiliate sites.

Here's the piece of the puzzle you seem to be overlooking. The question is, "why are they going after the small fish?" The answer is so they can establish precedence and you should be very afraid of that.

Whether you agree with the patent or not is a moot point. They have paperwork that says they have the patent. They are going after big fish and small fish. The big fish have money and attorneys and will assemble a team that will be able to battle in the courts. In the meantime, the small fish, who have NO BUDGET for court battles, get dragged into court quite promptly and lose to high paid attorneys with fancy verbage. Small fish CANNOT win against the big buck attorneys. In court, "right" never wins...the better salesmen (attorney[s]) always wins.

So what happens? The small fish, KNOWING that this is bunk goes into court with nothing but his moral convictions that this suit is garbage. He gets gang-ass-raped and loses. The company bringing suit now has precedence and when the big fish finally have their cases assembled and get into court they've got 3 strikes against them. The more small fish that settle, or get gang-ass-raped in court before the big fish finally get there, the more likely it is that, no matter how stupid this patent is, NO ONE will have streaming media without paying the licensing fees.

Seek out whatever legal funds might be available to battle this. The big fish are smart enough to fight pre-emptive battles. They know they will not be in court anytime soon. They know that if there is no money for the small fish to fight this then when they do have thier day in court, they will likely lose. So seek out these funds and USE them :thumbsup

Don't blame Acacia for taking advantage of the law. American porno people take advantage of the First Amendment. The Patent people are to blame.

Acacia are lawyers, they have the legal right to defend their patents. That is why they will probably not have to pay your costs if they lose.

And do not even think about them going after the big guys, there is more money in the little ones and less risk.

Ask an attorney about being off shore, that might be the cheapest alternative.

If they are going after Canadians companies, does this mean they will have to sue us in a Canadian court?

Like morpheus pointed out, they do not have a patent in Canada...

If they have no patents in Canada, you can just throw their notice in the trash.

ACACIA doesn't have patents only in the the USA, EU, Taiwan, Japan and Mexico. No offshore countries.

http://www.acaciaresearch.com/dmt/dm...tlpatents.html