As for boycotting sponsors.... I can see both sides of this.
If you're a sponsor who has been around a while, you're faced with the choice of lots of lawyer fees and a prolonged court battle. And if the ruling should go in favor of Acacia, you're liable for all of those years of past usage in addition to future payments. Meanwhile Acacia is offering to settle for what is comparitively peanuts. If you do not take their offer, you're taking a calculated risk of your company's future.
However, by caving and paying, you're basically paying off an extortionist.
Worse than that, you're feeding Acacia's cash flow and consequently their war chest to fight this in court. And the really scary thing is you're validating their business plan. There are tons of internet patents out there which are ripe to be treated in this same manner. For that reason, there really is some logic to a boycott.
I would much rather see sponsors taking whatever small percentage Acacia is willing to settle for and directing it to whatever group is best poised to collectively fight this in court be it IMPA or whoever. But it isn't realistic to expect something like that out of this industry, there isn't enough trust between each other, and everyone looks out for #1.
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