Acacia In The News

[jonas]

even though it was yesterday
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/021220/200014_1.html



Last edited by jonas at Dec 21 2002, 09:58 AM

[Winetalk.com]

Jonas,
Yahoo - Document Has Expired
The requested document, `/bw/021220/200014_1.htm', is no longer available.
;-(((

[jonas]

serge- that is weird. either i forgot the last letter in the url (l) or they just changed it:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/021220/200014_1.html

now it works. From what i hear is that acacia is very serious about going after patent infringers, they have a lot of cash and some really good lawyers.

Well, i am out for the weekend. Have a great one everybody. Happy Holidays!


one last thing, for any of our webmasters - we just added another niche gay site to the list to promote. http://www.amazingblondemen.com

[Winetalk.com]

Originally posted by jonas@Dec 21 2002, 09:57 AM
serge- that is weird. either i forgot the last letter in the url (l) or they just changed it:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/021220/200014_1.html

now it works. From what i hear is that acacia is very serious about going after patent infringers, they have a lot of cash and some really good lawyers.

Well, i am out for the weekend. Have a great one everybody. Happy Holidays!


one last thing, for any of our webmasters - we just added another niche gay site to the list to promote. http://www.amazingblondemen.com
Jonas,
as you recall, sex.com went after "trademark infringers" and you know the end of that story
;-)))

[Hooper]

I think this is much more complex than a simple name copyright violation.

However I do not believe tha acacia will win this unless people roll over. I was downloading dirty animations and very small video clips from bbs' when i was in my early teens. Which while I am young, was well before 1992 when this patent was filed.

I spent some time reading the extremetech video forums and dont know if this guy is full of poopoo or not, but finding good examples of prior art is (imho) what this entire case will hinge on.


Might be worth passing this guys info onto those who are involved in the first wave of litigation.
-----------
My company (www.gcomm.com) was the FIRST to come out w/ online video streaming (for adult) and even pre-web (dial-up), that I think constitutes "prior-art" which invalidates patents. I don't particulary care for the adult industry (wasn't in charge when that stuff was developed), but I care even less for those who try to screw others with BS patent suits. Do you know who I can contact about this? please reply to sysop@gcomm.com because I probably won't come this way again...
----------

[sextoyking]

Hooper,

wow that is way back play back bro.

I had met alot of the people from gcomm.com. Yes they were about the first to do live adult video via Major bbs, world group software, etc.

haven't thought of Galacticom is so long. We had a 60 line adult system. Rose City Online.

Forget the name of the adult service he called it, and forgot his name, the owner, but I think he was russian or something.

[gigi]

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/arti...month=12&day=17 (http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=16529&section=NEWS&year=2002&month=12&day=17)

And another...this one is interesting because I had no idea they lost a court battle over the v-Chip....

The others [TV Manufacturers who didn't cave] went to court, and, four months ago, Acacia lost its case. It's now pursuing antitrust charges alleging the TV manufacturers colluded to avoid paying the fees.

[Hooper]

They also lost a major biotech case against a company called nanogen.

Nanogen now owns 27% of Acacia and they also got a $1million cash settlement.

These guy's are very beatable if you ask me.

[Hooper]

Todd, have you gotten in touch with holio and homegrown? You might be suprised how helpful testimony about prior art could be in a situation like this, even for such simple things as stopping injunctions.

My experience with attorney's (even those who are fairly tech savy) is that you *have* to hand them the friggin nerd research cause they just cant/dont find it.

We're in the middle of launching a series of suits against a bunch of companies and the lawyers initially wanted hourly... bug i sit down and do 2 hours of google research, 3 printed pages and suddenly they're begging for contingency ;-)

Seriously though, what format were bbs' using back in the day? I cant remember any of the details from my bbs'ing days :-(

[sextoyking]

Hi Hooper,

well we started in I think 1991 with Bread board bbs software, which later was called TBBS. then we went to a 6 line Wildcat System running usr's and desqview.

Finally got up to Major BBS, Gcomm. 60 lines, Fast Isdn Line:), etc.

Did pretty good with it, since we were huge in selling adult cdroms, content wasn't a problem. had 2 7 disk cd changers, 14 cd's worth of adult pics online. I do remember in I think 1995 when the guy from FL that your talking about came out with the live video on Worldgroup / major bbs. by that time, major bbs still ran in DOS mode, but they came out with worldgroup, users would d/l like a 500 or 1 meg file or something, and they would like have a windows / gui interface to the BBS system. Audio, video, etc. I just can't remember what he called it. Fantasy Foxes come to mind, but I don't think that's it. mabey something like that.. Was like 3.99-4.99 per minute I think.

See Major bbs is where Ibill really got started and big at, back then Ibill, was called Logicomm, and they did 900 processing and other things for Major bbs sysops. I never used them, we had our own merchant accounts, and never wanted to mess with 900 calls, I.E. Minors could access, etc.

We kept rose city online running till about 98, then shut it down. I sometimes miss the local bbs thing, as we had parties all the time, people met on our system, got married, etc.

[JerryW]

Hooper, you're 100% right. This is patentent infrigment and is going to be decided by what prior art exists. I've already sent Farrell some info on prior art, since I know a lot of the early histrory of Quicktime, which came out the same time as this patent.

:uzi: Acacia

[Far-L]

Thanks for all the help, and yes, any instance of prior art is certainly helpful.

If anyone needs to get up to date on what is happening with our challenge to Acacia then email me at timlake@homegrowncontent.com

Acacia is trying to set up meetings with people in Vegas and we are trying to line up attorneys that can address their claims in an emergency seminar for anyone interested in staying informed about the options and alternatives.
:rokk:

[RawAlex]

Ummm, perhaps this would solve the problem entirely.

http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is224...l#_Toc447982103 (http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is224/s99/GroupG/report1.html#_Toc447982103)

The first meetings regarding digital MPEG encoding took place in 1988. Quite simply, there was an idea and a working project on the encoding and digital distribution of motions pictures 4 years before the Acacia patent.

Is this not a no brainer now?

Alex

[RawAlex]

... and ISO standard numbers issued.

Alex

[Hooper]

That is a good find Alex. I really dont see how these guys even think they have a case? Mpeg was designed exclusively with the purpose of compressing a/v works for later transmission. I imagine the next hurdle will be finding prior art of "on demand" technology in some shape or form utilizing something mpeg like (on demand according to their own patent can even cover something as simple as ftp transfer).

Every time i think about this case I hate these fuckers even more.

[RawAlex]

Hooper, on demand is easy - any computer transmission protocol is "demand" by definition. The first time an MPEG file was copied from one computer to another, it was "demand".

Alex

[KC]

Take a look at Telegard BBS, I think it was one of the first.. It was released in 1986..

I think I played with it pre-1990..

http://sysopscorner.thebbs.org/bbshist.html

[DAMNMAN]

I have gotten a few letters from these guys/lawyers/assholes claiming that I should pay them royalties for using their supposedly patented technology.

:barfon: :barfon: They do seem serious enough from the apparent cost of the package they sent me demanding money.

These people make me sick.
They sued the TV industry and got like 27 million bucks in a settlement.
They only made 100 grand in prior years.
I think it's a bunch of lawyers with free time buying up patents.