Acacia to lump
all adult industry into Class Action Lawsuit based on 2257
In the beginning
of this Acacia Saga, Acacia looked at the Adult Entertainment industry
as "low hanging fruit", meaning it should be easy pickings
to generate alot of licensing revenue. Acacia was happy to be a
"partner in porn" by taking 2-4% of gross revenue of companies.
They wanted
to "dip their beaks" into many companies.
The problem
with their plan is that many companies didn't like having new partners
and made it their "business decision" to band together
to fight against the patent claims.
Then, this all
became personal. At Streaming Media East Confernce, Robert Berman
said that people were stealing their property and that the adult
industry had been using their property for many years. Robert Berman,
General Counsel for Acacia, used the analogy that it is just like
someone coming into your garage and taking your rake.
Now, they have
officially tried to put a patent on porn by filing for a class action
lawsuit against all adult entertainment websites that require a
2257 statement.
If you have
a 2257 statement on your site, whether you are a content producer
or a webmaster that uses video content, you have now been lumped
together (and don't think that removing your 2257 statement will
get you off the hook).
The judge should
be making a decision on July 7th of whether to approve of this class
action.
If he approves
it, it will mean every adult site that has audio or video will now
have to deal with Acacia.
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