California is on the cusp of restoring net neutrality. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Katharine Trendacosta explains how this will happens, and what the implications are for the rest of the nation. Then Jennifer, Eric and Paul run down our slate of live podcast recordings coming up at this year’s Grassroots Radio Conference in Portland, OR […]
In the U.S. the copyright situation for music and sound recordings made before 1972 is a mess of different and conflicting state laws. That’s because there is no overarching federal law. The unintended consequence is that archivists, librarians and artists are often afraid to duplicate, distribute or repurpose very old recordings that – if they […]
The final nail in the coffin of the so-called “podcast patent troll” has been struck. Last week the Supreme Court declined the petition for review filed by Personal Audio, the company holding the original patent for “a system for disseminating media content” that it claimed applied to all podcasts. Personal Audio was challenging a 2015 […]
Today the podcast patent troll faces a hearing at the US Patent and Trademark Office. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has patiently worked to chip away at the patent owned by Personal Audio LLC which the company claims covers the invention of podcasting in 1996, meaning all podcasters potentially would owe the company royalties. The EFF […]
One chapter in the podcast patent troll story has closed. On Friday popular podcaster Adam Carolla and patent company Personal Audio filed a joint motion to dismiss Personal Audio’s suit against Carolla [PDF]. At the end of July news surfaced that Personal Audio said it offered to drop its suit, but that Carolla’s company rejected […]
While patent reform is still delayed in the Senate, there was some good news for podcasters fighting a patent troll’s claim. Last October the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a challenge to Personal Audio’s patent, issued in the mid 90s, that it says covers podcasting. The US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board […]
In this week’s podcasting news: PRX launches podcast network focused on sustaining the medium Podcasts continue to dominate Stitcher Awards Podcasting veteran Rob Greenlee joins PodcastOne Patent troll demands “Save Podcasting” campaign donor info. PRX Launches Podcast Network I’ve been writing quite a bit about how podcasting and independent radio can become sustainable. This week […]
A patent troll has been threatening the future of podcasting. A company called Personal Audio owns a patent that it claims covers podcasting, and has begun contacting prominent podcasters demanding payment for licensing their patent. The patent in question was only issued in 2012, some 7 years after the widely acknowledged invention of podcasting, and […]
