janky (adj.) of inferior quality; held in low social regard; old and delapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people.
We tried to pick up on these girls waiting for the bus, but I was driving my sister's janky 1989 geo metro so we just got laughed at instead.

11/8/2004

Evil people are trying to control streaming video!

There's a company out there, called Acacia Research Corporation, who is trying to make money off everybody's digital video streaming businesses. All of them, from porn sites to cable companies to universities. Why? They happen to have a patent.

Personally, I am disgusted by it. I can't believe these people can look themselves in the mirror. They are like a modern-day mob enforcer, except instead of taking money out of the tills of small business owners, they are trying to push around anyone who wants to stream video.

Want to hear the worst part? They seem to be winning.

I have to give them credit as savvy "businessmen" - they started by going after some small players, porn sites in particular, who were more afraid of the lawsuit than anything else, and capitulated. Next? Disney - another company who will do anything to stay out of the courtroom - settled as well. This basically legitimized their witch hunt, and gave them enough precedent to take on the big cable companies. TWENTY FIVE of them licended the Acacia patent this week.

Please take a moment to read some of the links below, especially the one on how the EFF put Acacia's DMT patent at the TOP of the list of patents they consider illegitimate.

Links:

  • Acacia Research Corp. claims patent on streaming media
  • Acacia Technologies Signs 200th Digital Media Transmission License Agreement
  • Acacia Files Additional Patent Infringement Lawsuits against Cable TV Companies
  • EFF Publishes Patent Hit List
  • Acacia Research home page

    • permanent link