uTorrent, BitTorrent Sued For Patent Infringement
Who needs the RIAA and MPAA: a recent lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court could put a serious hurting on BitTorrent.
TorrentFreak has gained access to a lawsuit filed by San Francisco-based Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network against BitTorrent, Inc. claiming that uTorrent and the BitTorrent Mainline client infringes on a file-sharing related patent. The lawsuit was filed at a U.S. District Court this week and seeks monetary compensation for losses the ongoing patent infringement has caused the plaintiff.
According to the lawsuit, BitTorrent is infringing on a patent originally filed back in April 1999. "By making, operating, using and/or selling [uTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline] and or other software, BitTorrent has infringed and continues to infringe, contribute to the infringement, or induce the infringement of at least claim 1 of the ’944 patent," the complaint reads.
Tranz-Send's patent, "Media file distribution with adaptive transmission protocols" which was finally granted in November 2007, describes a file-sharing system consisting of a file database, a transfer client and a distribution server that doesn't necessarily describe the way BitTorrent tosses data around between clients.
"A server/client media file distribution system is provided in which the server system is adapted to receive transmission requests from clients, status information from a network, and protocol information from each client," the company writes in the patent abstract. "The server, based upon this information, adaptively transmits a given media file stored therein to one or more clients using the optimal transmission speed and/or network protocol based on the network status information and protocol information."
In addition to BitTorrent, Inc., the lawsuit is also going after Kontiki Inc. on similar grounds. Unlike BitTorrent which is used by millions of file-sharers worldwide, Kontiki's clientele consists of businesses that use the company's media content delivery system – a hybrid of P2P transfers and central servers – to stream and distribute video. This software also allegedly infringes on Tranz-Send's patent.
As TorrentFreak points out, if BitTorrent is found guilty of patent infringement, the company could be forced to pay royalties for each download made by its more than 100 million users since the P2P protocol went live. This could drastically impact the company's operations and possibly spill over to other BitTorrent software companies and third-parties who use BitTorrent to distribute their legitimate software and media.
Additionally, a negative outcome could have a huge impact on the RIAA and MPAA's current war with BitTorrent users, a long-sought victory if a guilty verdict is indeed ruled on favor of the plaintiff.
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Patent Troll. I'm going to patent "A means of transportation that allows for variable acceleration and the ability to stop at any destination the user desires" and sue all the car/truck/bus/boat/bike manufacturer. These are the dumbest patents ever and they shouldn't be allowed.
Even if this is successful, it won't destroy P2P file sharing. I doubt that the average person downloading Linux distributions is going to give a damn about patents from a company that they've never heard of.
Now lets see here... TheP2P technology that the Torrent is based on is older than 1999, but then the US Patent Office neither knows nor cares, especially if somoene has slipped them a few under the table.
If patent troll wins does that mean the RIAA and MPAA get to sue patent troll because patent troll allowed its patents to be used to distribute unlawful copies of media?
If patent troll wins does that mean the RIAA and MPAA get to sue patent troll because patent troll allowed its patents to be used to distribute unlawful copies of media?
now thats funny. give someone else the heat from the RIAA and MPAA
Just had a read of their patent, its based on Server/client situation, where all the data still resides on the server, and just receives data back from the clients on better ways to deliver the data. Nowhere does it say that the clients distribute data between each other or a tracker/seed/peer style setup. this has IMO no relation to how bitorrent works and should be thrown out of court
Pfft, torrentz. Usenet...
If patent troll wins does that mean the RIAA and MPAA get to sue patent troll because patent troll allowed its patents to be used to distribute unlawful copies of media?
Reminds me of the women who claimed she owned the sun, and was sending letters to everyone in the world who benefited from the suns energy asking for compensation for using the energy from her sun, well the same thing can be done in reverse, all the people who got sun cancer. crops that die from drought.. should all also sue her for damages.
i hate the patent system
I can see how this may negatively influence the company's operations, but I don't see how this can affect the case against MPAA/RIAA. If guilty its patent infringement, not copyright infringement.
Patenting software is retarded. It's code, a language, do we patent languages now? Patents were meant to protect peoples ideas turned product. I don't see this dipshit with a product, until then patents should be useless. Companies like Rambus making billions off nothing would die in a second.
here is the thing.
if someone has a product, and they want to patent the innovative way they handle something, than they deserve it, in tech, how many 14-20 year old pieces of tech do we still really use? (14-20 years is how long patent protection lasts)
lets say that i create a new os, and its damn good because of the way it works. i would seak pattens on the parts that are really good, because i dont want competition to use my ideas and potential outsell me.
i dont come up with an idea on a crapper, and decide to patent the idea without having any form of a working model at LEAST in development.
but thats what tech patents more or less are, and thats why pattens need to change for the tech world at the very least.
This patent is referring to files stored centrally on a server which we all know is not how torrents work. Silly troll. Would like to know who is really behind this as the location the patent mentions is 00 Pine St., San Francisco, CA 94108, at phone number 415-263-0949 and it looks to be empty. I smell someone is trying to shut torrents down via a 3rd party so they don't get their hands dirty.
What a joke. The fact that this doesn't get immediately dismissed is proof our patent laws need fixing.
What a joke. The fact that this doesn't get immediately dismissed is proof our patent laws need fixing.
our non physical tech patents.
its rare to have actual engineering patents be as BS as this is.
They didn't sue Blizzard as well? Does their torrent system not infringe?
So torrentfreak will now charge for their torrentz? No legal system would allow for thaaaat.
Well, by the looks of things I hope they patented bullshit because they sure seem to be shoveling something.
Sounds more like the mafIAA try a new strategy to get at the torrent sites and frankly its getting tiresome that they don't care about what the consequences to everyone. The torrent itself is a neutral protocol that allow distribution of ANY file, its up to the person who creates the torrent to include whatever files they want so why not go after them?
What will the mafIAA attempt next? Try to shut down the internet perhaps, its common protocols http and ftp can be used to send illegal music. Why not the electricity too, it can also be used to play illegal music.
More and more musicians have started to distribute their own music and i'm greatful for that, knowing the money i spend purchasing their music gets to them, not the organization that only halts progress in the name of proffit!
Patent Troll. I'm going to patent "A means of transportation that allows for variable acceleration and the ability to stop at any destination the user desires" and sue all the car/truck/bus/boat/bike manufacturer. These are the dumbest patents ever and they shouldn't be allowed.
I take it you only read the title of the patent and not the 750 pages of technical document attached
...
Obviously not
I didn't read this, and I don't care.
But what is the relevance of Patchy the Pirate? Oh wait, nevermind ...
The fact the company was ever granted a patent on such a broad P2P concept is the real problem.
You know the protocol is Free and Open Source. I wonder if the Free Software Foundation will get involved....
This is utter leeching bull#$@1. Cohen deserves the credit. Whatever #@$!! created this patent probably couldn't code "hello world". Just some scumbag, come out of the woodwork. If the judge had any sense, he would challenge the scumbag that orchestrated this patent shit to code a simple FTP client and make him look like the tool he is (let alone come up with something like PTP which revolutionized the whole leeching concept). Cohen wrote the protocol and the code, he deserves the credit. Not this asshole who wrote this little prose desacription, which, by the way, doesn't even get the P2P model, but more the CS model.BitTorrent is a freaking well written protocol, that many use. Patent trolls like this totally lack inovation and creativity.
Saying P2P Revolutionized leeching is like saying the US Highway system is aiding bank robbers. While it may be true, I wouldn't call out enabling illegal activity is a "positive" effect of P2P technology. Try using a little more appropriate language, you'll sound a lot more intelligent.... just saying...
Just had a read of their patent, its based on Server/client situation, where all the data still resides on the server, and just receives data back from the clients on better ways to deliver the data. Nowhere does it say that the clients distribute data between each other or a tracker/seed/peer style setup. this has IMO no relation to how bitorrent works and should be thrown out of court
Wouldn't it potentially apply based on each client also being in the place of the server? I don't mean to support a patent troll, just to be picky. If you look at a single packet that goes out over bittorrent, you could look at the patent to see how each client deals with requests from other clients to download that packet.
It still seems a stupid patent and there isn't exactly a lot of 'choosing framerate / choosing protocol' going on, nor inserting adverts etc. It does talk about distributing a file in order regardless of who wants it. I can't see what was new in 1999 when this was filed.
Patent Troll. I'm going to patent "A means of transportation that allows for variable acceleration and the ability to stop at any destination the user desires" and sue all the car/truck/bus/boat/bike manufacturer. These are the dumbest patents ever and they shouldn't be allowed.
You speak wisdom!
This is bad news.
I've been using torrents since ~2002(?) and they were definitely around before that. If this patent was approved in 2007 I assume it was filed after 2002. So how can this possibly apply? If I have a product and a competitor files a patent for my product 10 years later, can he then sue me for having my product? Isn't there some clause for prior-use? The patent board should try to catch those but I guess sometimes they get by. The system is definitely flawed, badly.
The guys suing are not "patent trolls", they are the original inventors of Bittorrent that Brahm Cohen stole his design from. They had it long before Bittorent or napster even existed!
The guys suing are not "patent trolls", they are the original inventors of Bittorrent that Brahm Cohen stole his design from. They had it long before Bittorent or napster even existed!
yea just like facebook was stolen lol. they are patent trolls pure and simple
a few dollars here, a few dollars there, i wonder how much of my income goes to feeding these patent trolls