ACACIA here on GFY and deadline.
 

Obviously these guys are here on GFY as I have just received my package, I am not exatly the worlds biggest player so unless the head of Acacia has a very small penis I would not know how they came across my network UNLESS it was from GFY.

It states in the file that they want payment for this license before a certain deadline or they will retroactively charge me for all the years I have used videos but I can not find my date in the package can anyone help on this?

A couple of other notes when are the large cases against these clowns going to take place?

Its just unbelivable and its about time the national press picked up on this it affects the entire internet.

What I would LOVE to know is how they only have certain patents in certain countries? So for example if I was based in Canada I would be exempt from this BUT surely the same surfers that view my webpages will view the site owned by the canadian.

The amount they ask for are STUPID, why is it based on GROSS profit? Why not on NET PROFIT oh yeah i forgot they make more money this way.

Also How do they KNOW our Gross profit? Does this patent give them rights to look at our accounts and audit them? If I am a limited company I would love to know how they know.

On another note you must applaud their pure fucking business cheek and actually taking advantage of the stupid dicks in the patent offices around the world..

What if we DO not pay and then the patent gets chucked out of court, we are all clear right?

any news resouces on thsi crap apart from GFY posts

looks like you haven´t read much of the past 6 month arcacia posts ...

btw: aren´t you uk based ?

I got mine, too. The amount they are asking is nuts. Also, I offer a total of less than a half a dozen short clips on my sites, as bonus content. If I want to stop offering video, do I still have to pay these guys?

Yeah i am UK but agreed not read much of this crap, anyone care to update me..

Just read this mind ya, AOL talking to them....

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...3/b3764074.htm

I thought this was just ADULT to start with?

Acacia claims to have a team of people searching the net.
There is no date.

The cases are currently in progress. There is a hearing scheduled for next week to address the scheduling issues of the case.

Agreed, and hopefully we will be seeing more of that soon.

Not necessarily. International patent law is tricky. The IMPA and the defense group will be posting more information about this shortly.


The license, if you sign it, gives them the right to come to your place of business or wherever the records are maintained and audit your books with 10 days written notice to you.

Again, not necessarily.

If the patents are proven to be invalid then you are in the clear.

stopping videos would not be very good for retention surely.

if there is NO DATE then how long can I leave this thing, to see if thigns develop and also apart from donating what can we do.

sorry to be so behind on this peeps.

Uk is affected right?

I got my package but i acted like i dont speak english and told the guy "Juicy no live hera, no juicy hear"

Reply. Tell them you do not have streaming video.

:1orglaugh

Fuckin brilliant!

... well, I don´t stream video, never have, never will ... and the more I look into this acacia stuff the more I think their shares can drive some money in my pockets ...

It's very obvious we have a rat or several rats in our midst. One of the large sponsors obviously gave them a ton of very specific webmaster address info.

Hmmm do tell. :ak47:

I run sites based on original and unique photo content (me) and personality (a bunch of girls). With hundreds of photo sets up, and only like five 20 second videos, I don't think dropping video would mean bupkis.

Ah HAH! We now have drama for the day! There's nothing like a good conspiracy theory!

:Graucho

That is the way most people are, they dont pay attention or care if it doesnt involved them. Now that it directly involves you, you need to catch up on 6 months of conversation about this.

you might as well settle.

To all:

If you're sitting there reading this and not donating to help fight Acacia ( http://www.impai.org/ )

then you are an idiot.


Donate.


If you can only afford twenty bucks, send it. If you can send $500, all the better. But donate. If you think this is going away all by itself if you just ignore it, think again. Do you make movie galleries and submit them to TGP's? I wouldn't be at ALL surprised if Acacia starts contacting TGP/MGP owners and their submitters in order to extort money out of them for using mpeg files.

Donate.


http://www.impai.org/


Just do it.

Maybe a silly question, (I didn't read the patent) but what if the videos for your members were in zip format for download only, ie not streamable? would this get around the patent on streaming/web delivery? The members would be downloading to their machine not viewing over the net thereby negating the streaming patent.

Anybody got any info on this?

Here is a question for those in Legal Land:

What happens if you ignore all of Acacia's non-registered communications with you, and then eventually when they send registered communications wanting to go to court - you go.

Then lets say for whatever reason, you lose.

Say Acacia gets a judgement against you for example for $10,000.

You tell the court you have stopped using their technology & will continue not to use the technology until the patent is invalidated. Because I think everyone here knows that it eventually will be.

You accept that they have been awarded $10,000, but you do no pay the $10,000 and have no plans on doing so.

I'm sure they can file a lien, but is there anything else they can do to force you to pay them?

I know some people in here would rather stop using their patented technology (yeah right) & just ride out the wait on paying them until their patents are invalidated.

What other legal recourses would they have to collect that $10,000 awarded by the courts?

It's more likely that they just browse the net. I can't think that many big programs have my URL handy.

i don't know ian... i'm not usually one to take up torches w/ the frothing mob on its way to storm the reclusive doctors' hillside tower, but this does strike me as odd in your case; your site would not be one i would think a likely early target for acacia, both due to your near utter lack of video content and your british locale...

i have not received the dreaded package from acacia as of yet, and one pertinent fact would seem to seperate your and my case... i have *never* posted a site URL here on GFY, or any other forum.

related? i don't know, but worth considering.. :2 cents:

chupacabra - are you Brazilian m8?

i wonder if you can charge acacia for a gross LOSS... expensis out upfront for bandwidth and content and payment gets cancelled for some reason.

they are infact partnering with porn sites...........

When I was contacted last year that is what I was already doing when they made contact. They claim it still is in violation.

95% of you are identifiable by your postings here. When you post your urls or email addresses how hard do you think it is for anyone to figure out who you are? With the right investigational tactics even me, the technical dunce, could out at least 85% of you without asking a soul about you.

So you don't think Acacia reads the boards?

Take that package, white out your name and mail it off to yahoo... :Graucho

nope, i am a irish/japanese transplant to the states..!

I know of one rat on here.. but it wasnt for Acacia...but still a fucking whiny ass tattle tale that needs his stupid ass fucked...he knows who he is... I wouldnt put it past this same person to rat for more money...

I just donated. I hope everyone else does as well.

That article is from 2001. I wonder how it turned out ...

:)

hehe lets remember that you have to sign THEIR contract & not the other way around.

They aren't going to be liable for a damn thing you do. You can count on that.

Best idea I've heard yet :)


Who wants to start the Acacia packet Re-Mailer thread?

It would go something like:

"I heard some guy just remailed their Acacia package to $COMPANY_NAME - so remailers should probably skip that one"

Acacia wants to avoid starting trouble with the big guys until they can afford to do so...

:1orglaugh great idea.

Ok, who Re-mailed CNN & MSNBC? :1orglaugh

Not only do they claim that non-streaming, i.e., zipped files infringe on "their" patents but they have the balls to claim that merely linking to those files on someone elses domain is also a patent violation. They've dragged all the formerly-known-as-AVS programs into this so lets see how they enjoy chewing and choking on some of those big guys.

Maybe they should have a little disclaimer:




These are evil porn companies in violation of Acacias DMT patent claims!
Bookmark us for tomorrows list!

If they ever come to me, Im gonna sell my sites to some 3rd world country ... see if they can get money off of them... :Graucho

"Acacia claims to own patents covering virtually all forms of streaming audio and video. "

They do not own patents on downloading files, no matter the content.

Their whole case revolves around streaming media, be it audio or video, as well as video on demand being piped into motels..

They can't do a thing about members downloading zipped files and viewing these files through software on their own computer.

I think you are wrong. They claim to own the patent to everything that has to do with video online. Everything, including downloading zip files, or anything else.

They are grasping at straws, hoping that something will be upheld in court.

These guys are relentless. Our attorney has been battling with them for months.

We offer free sample clips for webmasters to view the videos they can buy on our store...no money for us until they buy, but they are still pushing for a piece of our sale...GFY !!!

They have a large team, and plenty of assistants researching tryng to steal from all of us on their BS patent.

So does Real Media have to pay these fuckers royalties to stream or sell streaming software?

there are 150 countries where acacia's fake patents aren't temporarily valid. pick one :)

I know what they can do in California, they will get there money believe me. They will call you in for disclosure, ask you who owns you money, were you bank, all kinds of stuff and you better not lie, as this will be in court. They will also contact people like ccbill and collect YOUR money, if you happen to own a business that take's in Cash, the Sheriff will come to your business and collect the money as people pay. That's a just few things they can do. :1orglaugh It really ain't funny though is it?

This article says they're only interested in 1 to 2 percent of streaming related revenue.

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-983552...g=fd_lede2_hed

And their licensing document asks for 2% of GROSS revenue of the entire site and is not limited to only the streaming portion. I think I'll go with the actual document as opposed to news.coms version of the truth.

They can 'claim' anything...

a movie or song file is nothing more than a file ..
They have no patents on movie or song files...

Downloading files went on years before the internet came along.. they have no patent on downloading.

They're simply trying a bunch of strong arm tactics hoping that maybe one will work. That's how lawyers work.

I could sue you for doing something that I knew would carry on and on in court if you didn't settle, in hopes that you would just settle instead of spending a bundle to prove me wrong. This is their hopes, but I have a feeling, once the folks with the backing start to fight back, the tides will turn, then these bad boys will have lawsuits up the ass from companies that they got money from.

I would just stop using the technology. Then, when their patent is invalidated, we (as a huge group) need to file a class action suit against Acacia seeking damages due to the loss of revenue their actions caused. We need to get a judgment in the billions and then enforce it. We need to go after them until they are forced into bankrupsy and have to have their assets liquidated in order to pay off their debts. We need to go after them until they no longer exist as an independent company. No mercy! None!

would love nothing more than to see Acacia sued into extinction.

The abstract of United States Patent Nº 5,132,992 Audio and video transmission and receiving system Patent says:

So downloadable videos *DO* appear to be included in Acacia's patents. You'll find copies of all of the patents here:

http://www.acaciaresearch.com/index_dmt.html

I'd love them to try and get their patent claims validated in an Australian court :)

Anyhow its very simple if by some odd chance they manage to trick the courts into ruling in their favor. You seperate all video and stuff covered by their patents into another company, run a 2nd set of books. Write up an agreement between companies which benefits the main one, and try to run the 2nd company down cash wise, and keep turnover low.

I am not sure of accounting rules etc in the US, but surely there is some way around it. Failing that, register a business name overseas in a country where their patents are invalid and do the same sorta thing.