In Net News uTorrent / BitTorrent is being Sued For Patent Infringement

Trouble is brewing on the torrent front. For those of you who pop over to Pirate Bay, isoHunt or ExtraTorrents to grab the latest movie or game.
BitTorrent Inc., the makers of uTorrent and the BitTorrent Mainline client, have been sued for infringement of a file-sharing related patent. According to the complaint, the BitTorrent clients infringe on the rights of San Francisco-based company Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network. The company demands compensation and if the court agrees, this case could have a disastrous impact on the BitTorrent landscape.

The world is now becoming accustomed to copyright infringement lawsuits, where people are suspected of illegally distributing movies and music using BitTorrent clients.

However Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network, is now trying to say BitTorrent is also an infringement in its own right, according to a lawsuit filed at a U.S. District Court this week. So who is this Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network that is trying to stop the very tool that allow legal file sharing as well as illegal.

Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network is the parent company of the brand and trademark: ClickMovie.com. Its mission is to increase its lead as the premier provider of Internet broadcast technologies and services — providing home and business users with near DVD quality movies-on-demand, time-shifted television, business broadcasting, advertising exposure sales, and electronic music delivery. Tranz-Send will exploit other markets like distance learning, gaming, hi-definition medical imaging transfer, seismic data transfer and by licensing to partners with strong positions in these segments.

Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network filed a complaint at the court this week where it alleges that BitTorrent is infringing on a patent originally filed in April 1999. The company claims to have suffered significant losses and wants to be compensated for the ongoing patent infringement.

 

Legal Document

For those of you how like to read long wordy legal documents.

 

“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.

The patent in question is titled “Media file distribution with adaptive transmission protocols” and was granted in November 2007. It describes a file-sharing system consisting of a file database, a transfer client and a distribution server.

 

“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,” 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.

 

Although it’s not easy to assess whether the case holds water or whether it’s classic patent trolling, the fall-out could spread far and wide. The two BitTorrent clients mentioned in the lawsuit have a user-base of more than 100 million users worldwide. If BitTorrent Inc. is suddenly required to pay royalties for each and every download, this will drastically impact the company’s operations. Not to mention the spill-over effect it may have on other BitTorrent software companies.

 

This patent seems far too broad.

“Media file distribution with adaptive transmission protocols”

It describes a file-sharing system consisting of a file database, a transfer client and a distribution server.

In a sense, browsing the web could fall under this criteria.

file database = web content
transfer client = browser
distribution server = web server

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”

This says nothing about clients sending each other files, it hints more towards the server itself contained the files: “The server, based upon this information, adaptively transmits a given media file stored therein to one or more clients”.

Companies like Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network really bug me, they want to sell people on the internet movies, music and games. But they can’t because software out there allows people to obtain the movies, music and games for free. So they sue the software company. In the interest of public safety, we should also make sure they press suit against the internet. Without it, they would have never ever lost all of that imaginary revenue. If we would each individually, just sue our own selves, that would save the world against the violence and terrorism which stems from information sharing. Information should not be free. It should be controlled and packaged as a commodity, like water, land, and air.

Their stupidity infuriates me.

People go to jail for stopping a train or airplane…
what about stopping the human progress and evolution?

Or plotting to stop it…

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

Tagged as: filesharing, patent infringement, utorrent