Acacia - Impa - Important!
 

First, I am the CFO of the Internet Media Protective Association (IMPA). IMPA is a non-profit trade association that was established to address many issues related to our industry. Obviously, a primary focus for the industry today is the Acacia lawsuits. For those of you that wish to address the issue in the usual GFY style, I suggest you step back and start taking the issue very seriously; it is not something to be taken lightly.

The lawsuits, and the packets of information that were sent out are very real. Acacia, in my opinion, is a company that exists for the sole purpose of exploiting patents that they feel they own. I could be wrong, but I do not believe that I am. In the recent past, Acacia claimed to own patents relating to the "V-Chip" technology and sued 19 TV manufacturers. The courts disagreed with Acacia, and the patents were invalidated, but I believe that Acacia is currently appealing that decision. Acacia also claims to own several patents that it says apply to the streaming of video over the internet, and it sued several companies for infringing two of those patents. The defendants have answered that the patents are not infringed and are invalid. Thus, the defendants, some as a group and some individually, have decided to fight Acacia and prove that the patents are not infringed and are not valid.

If you are one of the named defendants, you already know the situation. If you are one of the companies or individuals that received the glossy packets from Acacia, your exposure is just as great. By sending the packets, Acacia has put you on notice that they believe you are infringing their patents. As such, if the defendants in the current lawsuits are unsuccesful, you may be subjected to claims by Acacia that you willfully infringed Acacia's patents, exposing you to the possibility of more severe damages. I am not a lawyer and am not giving legal advice; this is simply how I understand the law. You should seek competent advice from your own legal counsel.

The Acacia lawsuits demonstrate that our industry faces critical issues that can affect the livelihood of all of us. The IMPA was formed to give us a forum and voice to deal with these issues. Interested parties can apply to become a member of the IMPA or can make contributions to help the IMPA work for us. Your support is important. No single company can, or should, have to carry the entire burden of addressing issues that ultimately affect every single one of us, whether we understand that or not. IMPA will post information here, and on our website that will be up shortly at www.impai.org

Contributions or gifts to the IMPA are not tax deductible as charitable contributions.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone of you that has a concern about how they can help our industry to contact Spike at [email protected]

a response!

Bump.

Very long post....let me read it first.

Very long post....let me read it first.

Thank you for the post. How long until the site is up?

The site will be up this week.

The ability to accept donations SHOULD be live tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then Thursday.

JMM, I haven't always shared your views in the past, but I'm really appreciative of what you guys are doing for the industry with this group.

You guys are doing a great job and FWIW, have my support and I'm sure you have everyone else's support as well.

It's OK..you will come around. :)

Thanks for the support, it is GREATLY appreciated.

How much has Ron Levi given to the organization so far?

Like all contributions and donations to the IMPA, the amount and frequency of Ron's contributions/donations will remain confidential.

In all seriousness, can you kindly stop infusing the Acacia threads with FM bashing?

This is a time we need to put the unrelated personal animosity aside and do what we can to help the situation.

Thanks! :thumbsup

You have my support, I will pose for the IMPA thong Calendar, reserve January for me.

I was trying to get some views, saw it buried. You want views, I am the man;-)

Jim I am willingy to support via contributions. Why don't you offer a monthly recurring contribution we can signup for?

here, here!!

Thank you very much Mof :thumbsup

Bump.

Kevin..that's an outstanding idea. We will look into that. I am not sure the legality of recurring donations but rest assured we will discuss it with legal counsel. If it is doable, consider it done.

BTW, it's Jeff, JMM is what I am known by in the industry. My initials.

Awesome news. All webmasters, even newbies and affiliates-only guys should be getting prepared to send a few bucks each in to this cause.


We need to beat down these bottom-feeding Acacia twitsicles.

No problem.

Between Acacia and processing woes, it is time to get the wheels on track.

Much thanks to Jeff for his contributions! Look forward to

Good job JMM, HG and all the others....


Bump.....

Ah now I remember. You guys asked me to change the name "Content Club" for my monthly membership content sales because it was your url and you registered it or something.

:)

I swear we need one of those "None. The hun makes money from prepaid...." for Brad here.

Fuggit, I'll do it.

None. The IMPA has been unable to accept donations from anyone due to the Non-profit organization and it's bank accounts needing to be in place first.

Print that out & tape it to your wall or something.

Hurry with the Donation thingy, I wanna make it a button on my sig!

free bump

*sigh*
Here we go again.

I am behind you all the way, brothers and sisters! Count me in on this one.

http://www.sonic.net/~zeugma/graphics/ribnshdw.gif

What is the name of the law firm defending IMPA?

Thanks

seriously, you bullshit FM stalking is becoming boring...