Walter I see Amplified.com mentioned not TSIG so where do you get TSIG will be in court soon and another thing read the whole NEWS release there may be nothing that sightsound.com could do anyway..
Sightsound.com, a tiny company that
owns a patent for selling music through
online downloads, is demanding that other
music companies pay licensing fees or
face patent-infringement lawsuits.
The Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, company
has already sent formal warnings to some
music sites, including MP3.com, one of
the main hubs for downloading music files.
"We're highly confident in the validity of
our intellectual property," said Scott
Sander, chief executive at
Sightsound.com. "We have two US
patents that control the sale of
downloadable music. We're not trying to
slow [the Internet music industry] down.
We're trying to speed it up."
But some companies said they'll challenge
Sightsound.com's patents and put up a
serious fight before paying licensing fees.
The brewing fight once again raises the
question of how competent the US
Patent and Trademark Office is in handing
out exclusive rights to basic technologies
underlying the Internet. If
Sightsound.com's patents are upheld in
court, it could exact a toll from the entire
online music industry.
That prospect hasn't been lost on the
traditional music industry. The Recording
Industry Association of America, or RIAA,
no friend to the online music movement,
said Sightsound.com very likely will have
to fight to get its money.
"At this point, the validity of these
patents is almost certain to be
challenged," said an RIAA spokeswoman.
She declined to say whether the
association would file suit.
Sightsound.com creates Web sites for
other companies that want to sell music
online. It claims its patents cover the
idea of selling audio and video files
through downloads. On Wednesday,
Sightsound.com sent cease and desist
letters to four Internet music companies
including MP3.com, Platinum
Entertainment (PTET), GoodNoise
(GDNO), and Amplified.com.
Walt Wheres TSIG mentioned here ?????
Christopher Reese, vice president and
general counsel for Sightsound.com,
asked the sites to either pay a 1 percent
royalty on all revenue from online music
sales, or to "immediately cease and
desist."
ontinued
"They didn't do their homework," said
Michael Robertson, president of MP3.com.
Robertson said his site doesn't infringe on
the patents because it doesn't sell music
files or players over the Net. MP3.com,
which runs a record label, offers free
downloads to promote the physical CDs it
sells. "This is nothing more than a money
play."
Robertson said he doesn't know what he'll
do next.
Meanwhile, other companies are willing to
go along, just to avoid legal hassles.
"It seemed like good insurance," said
Howie Singer, chief technology officer at
a2b, a music software publisher that
agreed to go along with Sightsound.com's
request last June.
This isn't the first time Sightsound.com
has tried to enforce its patents. The
company is suing Web CD retailer N2K
over its e-mod software for playing
downloadable music.
It's also not the first time a controversial
patent has embroiled a lucrative niche of
the technology industry. Online
auctioneer Priceline.com, for example, has
patented the idea of applying reverse
auctions to the Internet. Some experts
say the patent office was wrong to give
one company exclusive rights to the
digital form of an idea pervasive before
the Internet existed.
In general, the patent holder usually has
the legal advantage. But in this case, a
defendant likely will be able to show in
court that the idea of downloadable
music was floating around before
Sightsound.com patented it.
"There's a good chance there's [prior] art
out there to bust the thing," said Greg
Aharonian, a patent consultant.
Earlier Internet-like technologies like
France's Minitel and Videotext, a failed
interactive TV project in the early 1980s,
flirted with the idea of sending music
through electronic networks, for example.
Even venerable Bell Labs experimented
with online jukeboxes.
"Based on a very preliminary review of the
patents, I think they probably could be
attacked a number of different ways,"
said Brad Biddle, counsel for MP3.com.
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