[opendtv] Re: Internet Patent Claims Stir Concern
- From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 21:07:19 -0400
Bert -
You seem to be responding as if the article was about not-for-free web
services. But it is about silly patents on Internet related ideas.
There is a major land grab going on now in the space of ideas. It is
best conceptualized by a chapter title in law professor Jessica Litman's
excellent book "Digital Copyright" which referred to the saga as
something like "Lawyers set out to conquer cyberspace".
- Tom
Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
> I don't know what's so surprising or hard to imagine about
> any of this. First of all, as the article says, there are
> already plenty of examples of sites available only for a
> fee. And secondly, we have had for about a century a
> global network that required payment for use. It's called
> the telephone network.
>
> If businesses which use the web or FTP sites think it's to
> their advantage to go to such a model, it will merely make
> Internet users behave more like telephone users. It's
> hard to believe that would make a lot of sense to these
> businesses, but it's up to them.
>
> The fact seems to be, though, that it's the telephone
> companies trending to more of a fixed fee service. That
> can either mean that pay-per-use Internet will not
> happen in a big way, or it could mean that telephony and
> Internet are converging to a middle ground business
> model. I tend to believe the former.
>
> Bert
>
>
>
>>PATENTS
>>
>>Internet Patent Claims Stir Concern
>>
>>By TERESA RIORDAN
>>August 16, 2004
>>
>>IMAGINE being able to set up a tollbooth on the Internet. Now imagine
>>collecting a small fee every time anyone in the United States clicked
>>on the Web to watch a video of a car advertisement, to listen to an
>>audio clip of a garage band or to review an updated credit card
>>statement.
>>
>>Sound far-fetched? Acacia Research Corporation, an obscure but
>>well-financed company in Newport Beach, Calif., has a portfolio of
>>patents that, it claims, allows it to do exactly that.
>>
>>Acacia holds five patents covering streaming video and audio. The
>>earliest one, numbered 5,132,992, was issued in 1992.
>>
>>In 2002, the company began sending out letters demanding licensing
>>fees, largely from the lucrative online pornography industry. But of
>>late, it has stepped up pressure on financial and educational
>>institutions and news organizations, including The New York Times
>>Company, which has received a letter from Acacia relating to its
>>corporate Web site. In June, Acacia sued nine cable and satellite
>>companies, including Comcast, DirecTV and EchoStar Communications. In
>>late July, it sent out more letters demanding licensing fees from
>>educational organizations that offer Web-based classes.
>>
>>...
>>
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/technology/16patent.html
>
>
>
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