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A group calling themselves Internet Media Protective Association is working the legal angle against Acacia Media. A little digging shows that IMPA is more or less a front for online porn vendors.
On the one hand, I wouldn't shed too many tears if the online porn folks dried up and went away (it might even lower the amount of spam that I get on a daily basis, but I doubt it). On the other hand, quite a bit of the forward motion in online technologies (secure purchasing, streaming audio/video, animation just for starters) has been pioneered by the adult industry.
And, as pointed out here, a successful push by Acacia could very easily result in a patent cost to anyone using streaming media.
Acacia claims its patents cover just about every form of digital audio and video distribution. According to Berman, these kinds of activities violate Acacia's intellectual property rights: pushing MP3s from peer-to-peer groups, streaming newscasts from Internet radio sites and delivering movies through cable networks.
Off the top of my head, that sounds like just about everyone would be affected. Even someone as small as me, who has the occasional sound clip on my own site.
Thanks to Xeni for the tip.
Posted by Casper at May 7, 2004 05:28 PM