[Bridging_the_digital_divide] Streaming video lawsuits against schools?

[bridging_the_divide at touchsmart.net]

Acacia to schools: Pay now or we sue
  From eSchool News staff and wire service reports
  August 11, 2004

  Acacia Research Corp., a company based in Newport Beach, Calif., has 
sent a "second wave" of letters to dozens of colleges in recent days. 
The message: Pay up, or risk getting sued. In spite of a legal setback 
in July, Acacia is escalating claims that schools' use of streaming 
video for purposes such as distance learning and video lectures 
violates the company's patents.

  "Certainly for colleges that do a lot of distance education, this 
could be a major problem," said Steve Worona, director of policy and 
networking programs at EDUCAUSE, an association of campus information 
technology centers.

  Several colleges say the letters make even broader claims, extending 
beyond distance learning to cover almost anything a college does that 
involves moving audio and video files on computer networks.

  Acacia reportedly told Washington College in Chestertown, Md., that a 
minimum annual license fee of $5,000 was likely to cover what the 
company claims it's owed. But Acacia said the deal is only on the table 
until Sept. 15. Afterward, the price might go up and Acacia might sue 
for past infringement.

  Some educators liken it to extortion--or worse.

  "I think it's kind of like highway robbery or blackmail," Billie 
Dodge, director of information technology at the 1,400-student college, 
told the Associated Press. Washington College uses streaming video for 
things like making lectures available online and showing alumni sports 
highlights.

  Some companies have agreed to pay Acacia licensing fees amounting to 
hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, according to Bob Berman, 
Acacia's general counsel, but he said he doubts any university streams 
enough video to owe that much.

  It's only fair, he contended, that colleges pay up.

  "Many colleges have patented technologies that their research 
departments have gotten issued," he said. "On the one hand, they like 
the revenue they make from their patents. On the other hand, they're 
saying we should allow them to ignore ours."

  Acacia's digital media patents, granted to the founders of Greenwich 
Information Technologies in the 1990s, weren't enforced until Acacia 
bought them in 2001. Acacia has since secured dozens of licensing deals 
with companies ranging from adult entertainment sites to The Walt 
Disney Co. It has also sued large cable and satellite providers.

  Last year, Acacia sent an initial round of letters to a number of 
colleges, seeking similar licensing deals (see "Schools targeted in 
streaming video patent claim,"). A handful signed agreements, but most 
have resisted.

  Now Acacia appears to be making another big push. Berman declined to 
say how many schools had been sent letters in what he acknowledged was 
a "second wave." But as of Aug. 6, at least 48 colleges had notified 
the American Council on Education (ACE) that they'd received letters 
and asked for advice on how to respond.

  ACE and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a legal group that opposes 
Acacia's patent claims, are both advising colleges not to pay.

  "There's a lot of scared schools out there," said Sheldon Steinbach, 
general counsel for the ACE.

  In a preliminary ruling in Acacia's dispute with adult entertainment 
sites in July, a federal judge found that several terms in Acacia's 
patents were indefinite, a verdict that could weaken potential Acacia 
cases against other streaming video users.

  Now, critics of the company are saying that it's trying to make a fast 
buck off schools nervous about litigation before a federal judge makes 
a final, potentially crippling ruling in that case.

  "Honestly, I think it's a sign of desperation," said Jason Schultz, a 
staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Acacia knows the 
hammer is coming down on its patents, and it's going to extract as much 
as it can before the apocalypse."

  Berman denied that, noting several of the company's claims were not 
hindered by the ruling.

  Schultz called the company's tactics "a threat to the future of 
education."

  "Acacia wants to extract a toll on each and every lesson that a 
student learns over the internet," he said. "I think that's despicable. 
Universities are under enough pressure in their budgets right now to 
try to pay for everything. The last thing they need to do is give a 
pound of flesh to some tech company that doesn't even make a product."

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5217

---

Jason Barkeloo
President
TouchSmart Publishing
http://www.touchsmart.net
t: 513.225.8765
f: 206.666.4856

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