From Slashdot today [here we go again!]:
Patent Issued For Podcasting
on Friday November 20, @12:14PM
from the next-a-patent-on-the-eardrum dept.
..."The EFF is reaching out for help after a company called Volomedia
got the Patent Office to grant them exclusive rights to 'a method for
providing episodic media' that could threaten the community of
podcasters and millions of podcast listeners,
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/eff-tackles-bogus-podcasting-patent-and-we-need-yo.
'It's a ridiculously broad patent, covering something that many folks
have been doing for many years,' writes Rebecca Jeschke. 'Worse, it
could create a whole new layer of ongoing costs for podcasters and their
listeners.' To bust this patent, EFF is looking for additional 'prior
art' — evidence that the podcasting methods described in the patent were
already in use (PDF) before November 19, 2003,
http://w2.eff.org/patent/wanted/volomedia/EFF_volomedia_prior_art.pdf.
'In particular, we're looking for written descriptions of methods that
allow a user to download pre-programmed episodic media like audio files
or video files from a remote publisher, with the download occurring
after the user subscribes to the episodes, and with the user continuing
to automatically receive new episodes.'"
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/20/1422202/Patent-Issued-For-Podcasting
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