The MP3 is dead, we’re to believe. That’s because the technology’s inventor, the Fraunhofer Institute, has ended licensing of the patented technologies needed for the encoding and decoding of MP3 files. Reality, of course, it a little more complicated. As Fraunhofer itself clarified in a blog post this past week, the licensing program ended because […]
At the top of this week’s digital radio news is an analog broadcast station. In a deal that took nearly two years to complete, on Monday the FCC removed the first barrier to Pandora buying Rapid City, SD FM station, KXMZ. The Commission granted a waiver of foreign ownership rules which otherwise prohibit a company […]
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 […]
In March we told you about the SHIELD Act which was introduced into Congress to help reform patent laws, particularly targeting patent owners who are “non-practicing,” meaning that they aren’t actually making use of their patents. One such “non-practicing” patent owner is Jim Logan, whose company Personal Audio is suing podcasters like Adam Corolla, claiming […]
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 […]
