Congress supports Tax on adult webmasters

[FightThePatent]

For those that haven't been following the threads and news about Acacia, let me briefly bring you up to speed so you can understand why the thread topic is titled the way it is.

Acacia Research (http://www.acaciatechnologies.com) has some patents (http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/patents.htm) that claim essentially to owning the process of downloading audio or video files from a web server.

They sent out "information packets" to many companies, some adult, some to schools and universities.

They are demanding license fees (http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/te...t_adultent.htm) for payment of using their "patent".

Some adult websites have licensed their patent (see Press Releases at http://www.acaciatechnologies.com) while others have joined together to form the IMPA (http://www.impai.org) and to also become defendants in litigation.

FightThePatent.com (http://www.FightThePatent.com) was formed on August 12th as a one-man crusade to bring awareness to these issues and to assist the defendants to find prior art (with no compensation).

Many webmasters jumped into the search for prior art, using this page http://www.FightThePatent.com/v2/Searching.html to help find stuff to look for, and http://www.FightThePatent.com/v2/Squirt.html to see what prior art examples were posted.

FightThePatent.com has now broadened its scope to propose the start of Fight the Patent Foundation ("FTPF")(http://www.FightThePatent.com/go) to help fight against patent abuse.






And now that you have been brought up to speed.......


Acacia's licensing structure includes a minimum payment of $1,500/year if you make likess than $50K/year. If you make more, then the figure is like 2% of GROSS.

In licensing their patent, you have to open your books to them so they can verify your GROSS sales. When you sign the license agreement, there is a provision that states if the patent is found invalid, YOU DON"T GET YOUR MONEY BACK.

Having someone take 2% of your GROSS REVENUE is exactly like a tax...except you know the tax by the government is legit (whether you agree with it or not is a separate story). The Constitution created the provisions to start the Patent Office and Congress created Patent Laws. So companies like Acacia are enforcing their rights to (abuse) patent and civil law to enforce their claims.


What's of greater concern, besides my opinion that the patent is invalid given prior art, is that there are other patent holders in this space making similar claims with their patents (USA VIDEO, SIGHTSOUND).

If each one of these companies came around to charge 2%, along with other patent holders like patents on shopping carts, e-commerce, exit consoles, etc.... the resulting total tax would put the current corporate tax structure to shame.

At least with the IRS, you can deduct expenses to reduce your tax base.. .with these licensing fees, it's off the top. So 2% of GROSS could actually be like 20% of NET (or higher).

Do you want to pay more "taxes"?

If this makes you mad, join IMPA as a member... it's an adult industry organization that is a watchdog on many issues that concern webmasters, with patents being one of them.

Pledge $100 or more support for FTFP to become an ACLU-like organization that fights against patent abuse.


Fight the Patent!