‘Streaming video’ patent attacks
p2pnet.net News:- Acacia Media Technologies, one of the companies featured ignominiously in the EFF’s Worst Patents campaign, has contacted “dozens of colleges” claiming their use of streaming video in areas such as distance learning and video lectures violates company patents.
“The message: pay up, or risk getting sued.”
The quotes come in an Associated Press story here, but Acacia has been in the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) sights for quite a while.
Acacia’s patent 5,132,992 covers the sending and receiving of streaming audio and video online and is, says the EFF, so “Laughably broad” that it would cover everything from online distribution of home movies to scanned documents and mp3s and threatens “dozens of small companies, including many home-grown adult websites,” says the EFF.
“Several colleges say the letters make even broader claims, extending beyond distance learning to cover almost anything a college does that involves moving audio and video files on computer networks,” says AP, going on:.
“Washington College in Chestertown, Md., was told that by Acacia that a minimum annual license fee of $5,000 was likely to cover the company claims it’s owed. But Acacia said the deal is only on the table until Sept. 15. Afterward, the price might go up and Acacia might sue for past infringement.”
The school calls it “extortion”.
“Honestly, I think it’s a sign of desperation,” says Jason Schultz, the EFFÂ lawyer who’s running the Ten Worst campaign, in the story.
“Acacia knows the hammer is coming down on its patents, and it’s going to extract as much as it can before the apocalypse.”
