Patent Troll Podcast Lawsuit

NOTE: Edited and reposted, hopefully to remove something in here the mod didn't like. Still think the subject is worth talking about. This isn't about Carolla or his specific lawsuit, but the patent troll and misuse of the judicial system. I'm not trying to post spam.

I'm a truck driver. As such, I listen to a LOT of podcasts. Probably a lot more than the average person. I won't put a bunch of detail here as I'm sure most of you here are savy enough to look this up on your own, but basically there is a jerk claiming a patent on all of podcasting. Letters are being sent out demanding royalties. Adam Carolla is currently being sued (Carolla Digital hosts several podcasts, namely The Adam Carolla Show and Penn's Sunday School.)

The main fear for me here is of slimy lawyers using our broken judicial system to potentially hurt small and medium sized podcasters. People who can't afford to go to court, who either pay out or simply say "fuck it" and shut down.

The claim these guys have on "podcasting" is tenuous at best, but if no one fights them in court then they will continue to be able to prey on smaller game. Apparently they've already sued Apple multiple times on the same patent claim, saying they also own the concept of a "playlist."

Here's a link to one story, or just Google "podcast lawsuit" or something like that.

Spread the word out about this. It's fucked up and I hope people are talking about it. I remember the mess years ago when guitar tab sites were getting shut down by being threatened with mostly bullshit lawsuits by people who could afford it. As a musician, that was really shitty. I don't want to see smaller podcasters just crap out rather than fight a lawsuit.

This was brought to my attention listening to recent WTF and Nerdist podcasts. What a crock of shit this whole thing is. The idea of claiming a patent on the basic idea of podcasting is beyond absurd. Just some bitter failed-inventor jackbags readily abusing the judicial system just to make some money they don't deserve. I was actually wondering if the GB crew had gotten any emails from these guys since they are probably working their way through the top podcasts on iTunes or something. I'm glad Carolla is fighting this shit.

Patent-trolling is for motherfuckers

This has been going around for a couple years now. All the podcasts I listen to have joked about it a lot because it holds no water. No one seems to care and it hasn't affected anyone that I know of. A lot of them say they'll just change the name "podcast" to something else if it becomes a problem. Really that's all they have to do but a lot of podcasts don't even use the term "podcast" for the name (some do though) so that doesn't really matter a whole lot either.

It is stupid bull shit, though. I agree.

"Podrick Casterson invented what would later be referred to as the 'podcast' in 1907 when he recorded his weekly conversations with his mother, age 93, and mailed out wax phonograph cylinders of the discussion to family members and anyone who responded to an ad placed in the newspapers at the time. Topics covered included local news, Bible studies and (starting in 1908) responses to queries from listeners. Peak circulation was 67 subscribers in the fall of 1912, after the scandalous edition where Casterson's mother revealed that he was, in fact, adopted."

Good thing they're called Bombcasts in these parts of the internet. But I agree, patent trolling is dumb. Hopefully this will resolve the same way the Edge one did.

does King have a podcast theyre going after? cause that i may mildly approve.

How thoughtful of you.

Are there truck-driving podcasts, and do they talk about videogames and PS4 Playroom adventures?

This American Life has a great episode on patent trolls, and the second part touches on the podcast issue with an interview with Marc Maron.

When Patents Attack! part 1
When Patents Attack! part 2

As far as I understand, just changing the name from "podcast" to something else wouldn't help them in any way. It's not the word "podcast" that these guys claim to have a patent on, it's the concept, however broad it is. It's probably bullshit, but the way patent trolls make money is by demanding money out of court, and since most people can't afford to go to court over a bogus patent they'll most likely pay up. Personal Audio have settled with Apple and some cellphone companies over this, so they've made some money.

LOL. I'm an idiot. Glazed over the name the first time I read it and was totally buying it. :)

WTF is that supposed to mean, exactly? What do you do for a living? Also, exactly how many professional drivers do you know to come to the conclusion that what most say has no value? Really, I'm curious. I'm sure douchbaggery on your level must have a really interesting story behind it.

Not sure, never looked. Maybe? But they probably talk about the state of the industry, which is probably more complicated and interesting than you know, seeing as how it's really the backbone of our entire economy. Actually, I'd recommend TheTruckersReport.com I'm on their mailing list.

@onekillwonder_ said:

It was brought to my attention that CBSi has a team of lawyers that would be able to handle this. I tend to forget that GB is actually under a big assed corporation. I think they're pretty safe from all of this, but smaller guys who don't have that corporate umbrella could be abused.

How can somebody patent spoken word debate and entertainment? I'm not following

Essentially, they've patented the podcasting process. I'll just C&P this. This is claim 31 from the patent they are suing over.

31. Apparatus for disseminating a series of episodes represented by media files via the Internet as said episodes become available, said apparatus comprising:

one or more data storage servers,

one or more communication interfaces connected to the Internet for receiving requests received from remotely located client devices, and for responding to each given one of said requests by downloading a data file identified by a URL specified by said given one of said requests to the requesting client device,

one or more processors coupled to said one or more data storage servers and to said one or more communications interfaces for:

storing one or more media files representing each episode as said one or more media files become available, each of said one or more media files being stored at a storage location specified by a unique episode URL;

from time to time, as new episodes represented in said series of episodes become available, storing an updated version of a compilation file in one of said one or more data storage servers at a storage location identified by a predetermined URL, said updated version of said compilation file containing attribute data describing currently available episodes in said series of episodes, said attribute data for each given one of said currently available episodes including displayable text describing said given one of said currently available episodes and one or more episode URLs specifying the storage locations of one or more corresponding media files representing said given one of said episodes; and

employing one of said one or more communication interfaces to:

(a) receive a request from a requesting client device for the updated version of said compilation file located at said predetermined URL;

(b) download said updated version of said compilation file to said requesting client device; and

(c) thereafter receive and respond to a request from said requesting client device for one or more media files identified by one or more corresponding episode URLs included in the attribute data contained in said updated version of said compilation files.

If I read this article correctly (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130206/07215421891/patent-troll-says-it-owns-podcasting-sues-adam-carolla-howstuffworks.shtml), this patent was filed in 2009, when Podcasts as we know them today had already been around for at least 5 years?

Even before the present day way of doing it, using RSS feeds for listing and linking to the latest episodes, the concept was around in the 90's using M3U files, which can either point to an local or remote location, and were commonly used for audio streaming and playlists from around 1995 and onwards. I know at least 2600 Magazine have had their Off the Hook radio show on WBAI since 1988, and since the mid 90's they have published RealAudio and later MP3 archives of their latest episodes this way.

From that article, the paragraph below the excerpt from the patent:

"Update: As pointed out in the comments, this is actually a "child" patent of an earlier application, so they can argue a priority date from back in 1996. In other words, this is really a submarine patent (which were supposed to have been outlawed)."

This websites views on patents are so much to watch, since they totally change at the drop of a hat.

@markwahlberg: Got such an Adam & Joe 'Earl of Sandwich' vibe from that.

We as a community should come together and make a "Crushing Candy the Podcast Saga: Edge Edition"

Thanks for that Rebeldog, we are nearing the end of the free internet as we know it.