Quote:
Originally posted by Sharpie@Nov 1 2003, 07:27 AM
I really did not aim to rain on anyones parade..... It just seemed that people were grabbing on the the fact that MS had the same patent attornies. Although the circumstances could bear fruit, it is just speculation, and I would not use that as a basis for any business decision.
I have never been invloved in any patent litagation, but I have been involved in copyright litagition. In the days when CDROM technology was brand new, and much paralled the early days of the Internet, I was sued by Disney & Warner. It is quite scarey when you receive legal mumbo jumbo about a foot thick. They came down on me because I distributed a clip art disc with over 2,200 pieces of clip art in zip files. (I was not the producer, and certainly did not unzip the 2200 files and look at them) There were 7 Disney on them. To the layman, it did not make sense to go after me - but, the law is scarey, and does not have to make sense. I did not have to deal with Warner Bros because the court decision came down in a parody case that covered the 3 pieces of Warner parody that were on the CD. But, Disney was another matter. 3 Attornies, and thousands down the drain, certainly gave me a wakeup call. You have to cross all your t's and dot your i's - and take nothing for granted - just because it makes sense to you.
|
Well Sharpie Far-L is not allowed to confirm or deny.
I NEVER said to make business decisions based on M$ and IMPA allegedly working together.
I have NEVER given people business advise other than my post where I gave a cut and paste letter for people to send to their sponsors and billing company to get answers. Stangely enough nobody posted responses on any of the boards to that thread. If they were ever taken to court the letter could be used in discovery to find out how Acacia got their personal information. Nobody here responded to that post so obviously it was a waste of time to get anyone to do anything on their own to get answers.
However it seems boards are a place to complain, promote and berate. Solid information is scarce and only so much can be said on the boards without opening yourself up to problems, as Far-L knows. So in this thread I gave you info to connect the dots, come to your own conclusions. Do your own research.
I thought boards might be a place to make contacts and move to the next level in my business. I thought working hard and showing my dedication to our community and fighting the good fight would show good character.. something that is evidently lacking in our community. Unfortunately it seems the old timers are to jaded and pessimistic.. the younger guys are to driven and egotistical to work with others. So I'll just go back to business as usual. I wanted to work smarter instead of harder (as the old saying goes) Instead I'll go back to doing what I know.. and just do more of the same until I either go out of business or create something on my own that's unique and changes everything. I've spent a lot of time on this issue trying to make a difference and coming to a brick wall every time. My business has suffered and it's time I focus on what I do best and stop looking to others on how to improve. I'll do it myself.
It's sucks you were in a lawsuit like that. As most know I just got out of a 9 month lawsuit where my babysitter tried taking custody of my son because I'm Gay and have an adult site. It was very public etc etc etc. I was edged out of my online business in 1995 with my site rentweb.com by the biggest apartment search magazine in the U.S. They sued me to put me out of business ( a common tactic I'm told ) I was making thousands a month and ... well I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. So when Debevoise & Plimpton ( the biggest law firm in NY at the time ) sent me a letter.. I just shut my doors. I was 23 at the time with a two year old son and just a letter was enough to scare me. I let the domain name go and it's been picked up recently by some domain selling company. For some reason it shows a created date of 2001 .. after a name expires and is picked up later.. it gets a new inception date?
I sympathize with these guys going through the Acacia thing. Let everyone learn their own lessons. Nothing I am doing here is helping in any way. Good luck to those of you who have gotten letters. I encourage you to find your own answers and take action. Don't sit back in fear and let that fear control you.