$200 billioin suite for MS & Apple for not complying with DMCA
Patent suit headed for MS and Apple for inentionally NOT following DMCA by NOT using patented technology to avoid paying royalties.
With the rise of intellectual property (whether it be patents or content, like Pirates of the Caribbean, for example) has come a rise in the number of patent suits. Unfortunately, this has meant the emergence of companies like Acacia Technologies, which has used the IP laws to its advantage, acquiring patents and filing lawsuits against any number of industries, including porn providers.
The way a suit usually works, however, is that Company A sues Company B for "infringing" upon its technology, or using it illegally. On Friday, however, a startup sent a number of cease-and-desist letters to several tech bigwigs (Microsoft, Adobe, Real Networks and Apple) accusing them of not using their technology. This could be a first.
According to a press release, a company called Media Rights Technologies and BlueBeat.com, an Internet radio station that is owned by MRT, said that it has developed and tested the X1 SeCure Recording Control, a technology to prevent digital audio streams from being "ripped," or copied.
What MRT claims, however, is this: "MRT asserts Apple, Microsoft, Real and Adobe have produced billions of these products without regard for the DMCA or the rights of American Intellectual Property owners, actively avoiding the use of MRT's technologies. Failure to comply with this demand could result in a federal court injunction to any of the above named parties to cease production or sale of their products and/or the imposition of statutory damages of at least $200 to $2500 for each product distributed or sold." (Emphasis mine.)
What this says to me is that the companies may be sued for not infringing upon MRT's technology, a rather novel take.
I called MRT chief executive Hank Risan for his take on it. According to him, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into law by President Clinton, and invoked in the Grokster decision, forces companies to comply with the act and provide copy-control technologies like the X1 Control, one of the reasons why Grokster lost the case.
Risan said MRT is acting on behalf of BlueBeat, which has an obligation to protect its own licensed content. According to Risan, he had previously worked with the The Museum of Musical Instruments to protect its content. But the RIAA filed its own $150 million C&D letter against MoMI.
"In the summer of 2001, The MoMI was hit with a cease-and-desist letter from the RIAA for copyright infringement, alleging damages of $150 million to their members. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Microsoft had circumvented The MoMI's copy protection, exposing hidden music files in an "upgrade" to the Windows Media Player, turning secure MoMI performances into downloads," MRT said.
According to Risan, MRT doesn't want a repeat of that letter. THE FULL STORY HERE
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I found this extremely interesting. It's alleged that, to avoid paying a licencing fee to this patent holder, MS, Apple, Real Player, and others, circumvented the pantent and are violating the DMCA and damaging copyright holders.
Is it true that all this time they had a way to protect our content and avoid all this theft but withheld it to pad their pockets? Does anyone know anything more about this?
