antonio rodriguez

Ownership of Streaming Audio and Video Challenged

Acacia Media Technologies has sent letters to a number of colleges and
universities essentially claiming that patents it owns govern file
transfer over the Internet, or any local network. In essence, Acacia
is claiming that its ownership of the patents cover streaming, all
audio and video files which are stored on one computer and which can
be accessed (i.e., by downloading of the file) on another computer at
the request of that second computer. It appears that the video files
do not have to be motion pictures; they can be simple JPEG or tif or
even PDF files (digitization, i.e. creation of the files is not a part
of Acacia's patents). Acacia's claims affect, for example audio and
video associated with eCollege's online courses. Acacia has targeted
distance education, stating in its letters to higher education
institutions that it will forgo claims for past infringement of its
patents if the institution will sign Acacia's "standard" license and
pay a 2% royalty on it distance education revenues.

Link: http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Template.cfm?Section=NewsandEvents&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11701&InterestCategoryID=272


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derrick dman hudson

|
| Acacia Media Technologies has sent letters to a number of colleges and
| universities essentially claiming that patents it owns govern file
| transfer over the Internet, or any local network. In essence, Acacia
| is claiming that its ownership of the patents cover streaming,

| all
| audio and video files which are stored on one computer and which can
| be accessed (i.e., by downloading of the file) on another computer at
| the request of that second computer.

I guaruntee that they don't have a patent on HTTP.

| It appears that the video files
| do not have to be motion pictures; they can be simple JPEG

JPEG is an open standard created jointly by several companies and
organizations. I find it highly unlikely that this particular company
owns any patents on JPEG methods, and if they did they would have had
to enforce them decades ago to realistically maintain any claim of
ownership.

| or tif or

I don't know much about TIFF files (other than expanding acronym).

| even PDF files

If anyone, it's Adobe who owns PDF patents and copyrights.

| (digitization, i.e. creation of the files is not a part
| of Acacia's patents).

| Acacia's claims affect, for example audio and
| video associated with eCollege's online courses. Acacia has targeted
| distance education, stating in its letters to higher education
| institutions that it will forgo claims for past infringement of its
| patents if the institution will sign Acacia's "standard" license and
| pay a 2% royalty on it distance education revenues.

This sounds like a fraudulent scheme for obtaining large quantities of
money (and some notoriety to go with it) to me.

| Link: http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Template.cfm?Section=NewsandEvents&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11701&InterestCategoryID=272

-D

--
He who finds a wife finds what is good
and receives favor from the Lord.
Proverbs 18:22

www: http://dman13.dyndns.org/~dman/ jabber: dman@dman13.dyndns.org

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alvin oga

i wonder if, in their scare tactic, if they reference their patent numbers

and the tranfer of files over the internet is NOT patentable ??
- ftp dates back to 1960's ??
- streaming audio/video is relatively new but dates
back to late 70's/80's
- people been doing "transfer of files" long before their
"so called" patent ??

desparation leads them ( acacia ) to make silly claims ...
and/or a silly patent they should never have gotten ...

- what ever happend to the equally silly double click patent ???
- that too should be tossed out the door
c ya alvin


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kevin boergens

Antonio Rodriguez schrieb:

ROTFL!
It has to be some kind of hoax..

Bye,
Kevin


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marc hultquist

They are probably owned by SCO or something along those lines ;-)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Boergens" <kevin@boergens.de>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:16 PM
Subject: Re: has anyone heard of this new crap?


http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Template.cfm?Section=NewsandEvents&template=/Conten
tManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11701&InterestCategor yID=272


listmaster@lists.debian.org

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mike dresser

Not at all, do a google search for acacia stream

I know of several **** webmasters that have had run ins with these people.

http://www.youmaybenext.com details a company that is doing something similar as
well.


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roberto sanchez

You are confusing trademark with patents. Patents can be enforced at
will. The GIF LZW patent was only enforced by Unisys during the last
couple it was valid, after GIF had become a de facto standard.

OTOH, trademarks lose value if not agressively defended, hence
Microsoft going after Lindows (for similarity to Windows).

-Roberto

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wendell cochran

From: Kevin Boergens <kevin@boergens.de

and

A SCO wannabee. Darl McBride Jr., CEO.

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paul morgan

Maybe not in GIF, but Unisys' patent of Terry Welch's LZW was enforced
early on in modems. IIRC, modem manufacturers paid a one time nominal
fee of $10,000 for its use in their products.

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.....................paul

Programming without a hex editor is like watchmaking without a hammer.

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