[8449] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Multimedia has been patented
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mark Boolootian)
Fri Nov 19 16:03:45 1993
From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 13:02:28 -0800 (PST)
Here is an astonishing piece of news (I hope the EFF is listening):
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 14:09:57 -0500
>From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber)
Subject: this patent stuff has gone rather too far
>LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 17 (NB) -- Does anyone own
>multimedia? Compton's New Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tribune
>Publishing, claims it does and it has the patent to prove it.
>
>According to the company, anyone selling information in a multimedia
>format will need to pay license fees to Compton's no matter what the
>device used to distribute multimedia. Company officials say interactive
>television services like those announced by Time Warner and GTE,
>graphical on-line services such as America Online and Prodigy, and
>compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) title developers will all be
>obligated to pay or face legal action.
>
>The US Patent Number is 5,241,671 titled: "Multimedia Search System
>Using A Plurality Of Entry Path Means Which Indicate Inter-relatedness
>Of Information." The patent was issued on August 31, 1993, and describes
>the technology as: "A database search system that retrieves multimedia
>information in a flexible, user friendly system. The search system uses
>a multimedia database consisting of text, picture, audio, and animated
>data. That database is searched through multiple graphical and textual
>entry paths."
>
>
>***
>
>
>Four ways were enumerated for the licensing: one percent of the net
>profits, rising to three percent for those who do not comply by June
>30, 1994; a strategic licensing agreement; distribution of multimedia
>information which it will buy for resale at a 65 percent discount; or
>purchase of a Compton's tool set for title development with accompanying
>run-time fees for distribution.
