Adam Carolla Joins Fight Against Podcast Patent Troll 126
First time accepted submitter tor528 (896250) writes "Patent troll Personal Audio has sued top podcasters including Adam Carolla and HowStuffWorks, claiming that they own the patent for delivery of episodic content over the Internet. Adam Carolla is fighting back and has started a Fund Anything campaign to cover legal fees. From the Fund Anything campaign page: 'If Adam Carolla loses this battle, then every other Podcast will be quickly shut down. Why? Because Patent Trolls like Personal Audio would use a victory over Carolla as leverage to extort money from every other Podcast.. As you probably know, Podcasts are inherently small, owner-operated businesses that do not have the financial resources to fight off this type of an assault. Therefore, Podcasts as we know them today would cease to exist.' James Logan of Personal Audio answered Slashdotters' questions in June 2013.
Links to the patent in question can be found on Personal Audio's website. The EFF filed a challenge against Personal Audio's podcasting patent in October 2013."
slight exaggeration (Score:4, Insightful)
"If Adam Carolla loses this battle, then every other Podcast will be quickly shut down."
lol no
'If Adam Carolla loses this battle, then every other Podcast in America will be quickly shut down."
lol yes
You should have to defend patents, or lose them (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Isnt there prior art? (Score:5, Insightful)
"ie. radio?"
Newsletters (the twitter of the nineties)
I got emailed 'periodic content' daily, weekly, monthly, over the 'internet', you could subscribe an unsubscribe via email too.
Some of them run to this very day.
Is the problem really patent trolls? (Score:5, Insightful)
You need to fight this problem at the source: the patent office. Generalized patents like this shouldn't be awarded, and generalized patents already granted should be revoked. Take away the trolls ammo and tell the troll he's not getting any future ammo.