Acacia Releases Second Wave Aimed at Colleges and Universities
Acacia is now leveraging its DMT patents in an effort to convince colleges and universities to enter into licensing agreements. Letters that were sent out to at least 50 schools offer a discounted rate but with a catch: The "amnesty" offer expires on September 15, 如果你等得太久, future agreements may not be as agreeable.
The licensing fees vary based on the size of the school. Sheldon Steinbach, vice president and general counsel at the American Council on Education (ACE), 说5美元,000 is the amount he’s most frequently heard from the 50+ schools that have already come to ACE for more 信息 and guidance. 实际上, according to one recipient of Acacia’s letter—an online 课程 system administrator of a liberal arts college 谁 wishes to remain anonymous—$5,000 is the minimum annual license fee. 在一封给 EDUCAUSE 其实, Seton Hall University’s CIO reported that Acacia is seeking royalties of 2% of revenues from all 课程s that include digital media.
Some observers speculate that Acacia is using this second wave of letters to schools—the first came a year ago—as a way to replenish their depleted "war chest," and others suggest that Acacia is using scare tactics to pressure schools into hastily agreeing to a deal. "The uninformed may very well fall into this extortionary trap,施泰因巴赫说. 实际上, Acacia has yet to play its most powerful cards, official cease-and-desist letters. But they are applying a large amount of pressure to schools’ legal teams 谁 now must try to unravel a complicated matter in a short amount of time.
"Complying with the reporting requirements of the license could possibly violate the Federal Education Records Privacy Act," says the anonymous college staff member. "The 课程 delivery system we use doesn’t just show how m任何 times 任何 streaming element was viewed, but 谁 访问 哪一个 元素 每一个 课程. That could be considered an academic record under FERPA, and it’s a great big ‘Bozo No-No’ to let unauthorized people view a student's academic records." This could mean that Acacia’s traditional model of charging fees based on the amount of digital media used might not work from campus to campus if they demand to see usage reports that contain this sensitive 信息. (Contrary to some people’s perceptions, Acacia’s patents don’t just cover streaming media; they’ve been interpreted by Acacia as applying to 任何 digital content that has first been stored in a media library. This means that a live-class Webcast would not be covered, but making that same lecture available at a later date online would violate Acacia’s DMT patents.)
The problem extends even further, as digital media is used in diverse ways at schools across the country. "Campuses are such complex entities,施泰因巴赫说, "that it’s hard to determine 谁 is using what process, and whether it’s for business or education purposes." This is why Steinbach finds it unlikely that 任何 future litigation by Acacia would turn into a class-action lawsuit.
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