From an Ars Technica story : Podcasting patent troll: We tried to drop lawsuit against Adam Carolla
In a "shocking" turn of behavior Personal Audio LLC is trying to back away from a lawsuit against comedian Adam Carolla, without getting paid a penny but Carolla won't let the case drop.
In a statement released today, Personal Audio says that Carolla, who has raised more than $450,000 from fans to fight the case, is wasting their money on an unnecessary lawsuit. The company, which is a "patent troll" with no business other than lawsuits, has said Carolla just doesn't care since his fans are paying his lawyers' bills.
"Adam Carolla's assertions that we would destroy podcasting were ludicrous on their face," said Personal Audio CEO Brad Liddle. "But it generated sympathy from fans and ratings for his show. Getting his fan base to continue to donate to his legal fund is a cynical exploitation of the publicity power he enjoys as an entertainer." He continued to say that Personal Audio was "quite surprised" Carolla turned down their offer.
I've no sympathy for this devil, and i'm glad that the EFF has opened a second line of attack on the podcasting patent in the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent is going through a process called "inter partes review," where the office reconsiders whether it should have been granted.
So do you know anyone else who's been subject to these trolls?
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Friday August 01 2014, @02:21PM
I don't know anyone who's been subject to this, but I hope that suit destroys this patent troll, either through their legal arguments getting completely destroyed or simply by crowdfunding enough money to burn through all of their capital.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by jcross on Friday August 01 2014, @03:18PM
And sure, it's only one troll with one patent, but the fact this is happening should have a chilling effect on ALL patent trolls. It's like a snake eating mice. A lot of people don't realize that, small as it is, a live mouse can actually do some serious damage to a snake, and the snake has to kill with its face. So snakes are judicious about when and how they strike. If they're not hungry enough to risk being wounded, they won't try to kill a mouse at all. If it seems more likely to these lawyer-snakes that their prey could strike back hard, they will seek other prey (i.e. some other kind of legal-system trolling) or only choose battles they knows they can win fair and square if it comes to that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @03:37PM
Jessie Thorn (of PRI's (later NPR's)) Bullseye, Jordan Jessie Go, Sound of Young American, Judge John Hodgman, the rest of the 'Maximum Fun' network shows) got himself sued by these guys too.
(Score: 2) by MozeeToby on Friday August 01 2014, @02:32PM
Anyone know if he's still taking donations? The fact that he's willing to force them to court makes me more likely to donate. I don't consider taking down patent trolls to be a "waste" of money.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ghost on Friday August 01 2014, @03:20PM
https://fundanything.com/en/campaigns/patenttroll [fundanything.com]
I found the link in the PersonalAudio press release, of all places.
(Score: 3, Funny) by cafebabe on Friday August 01 2014, @04:40PM
Oh, FFS. The scripting appears to be fall back gracefully but if I could pay anything other than a round number of dollars, with anything other than a credit card number via a GoDaddy SSL certificate and publicize my support pseudononymously, then they would have received US$8.94.
1702845791×2
(Score: 2) by mrider on Friday August 01 2014, @03:31PM
Thanks for asking that question - and for a sibling giving an answer. I'm going to donate as well. Far as I'm concerned Adam Carolla needs to utterly destroy these SOBs and then urinate on their smoking remains.
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 01 2014, @03:40PM
What? No driving them before you and no lamentation of their wives?
They have it too easy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by malloc_free on Friday August 01 2014, @04:45PM
Conan would not be impressed.
(Score: 1) by arulatas on Monday August 04 2014, @05:14PM
No he is a late night host. Not a pod-caster.
(for those humorously impaired I know you meant the barbarian)
----- 10 turns around
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01 2014, @07:22PM
> I don't consider taking down patent trolls to be a "waste" of money.
Why do you hate America?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Friday August 01 2014, @08:49PM
Trolls may die, but patents last forever*
Consider SCO, which got spanked so hard that they had to declare bankruptcy as a delaying technique. Sure, the owners of SCO lost their equity, but the right to sue lived on (and was bought out by friends of the original management). SCO's ludicrous countersuit against IBM (over property SCO never actually owned) still lives.
The thing about patent trolls is that they don't have any other business to "take" money from. You can't win. You can simply wrestle the troll to the ground, keep that particular empty shell from suing anyone else, and then...wait for some other entity that bought up the patent in liquidation to start suing over it again. "Beating" the troll accomplishes nothing. As long as the patent exists, someone will be suing for it.
Beating the patent troll in court doesn't necessarily mean you've invalidated the patent. It often means that you've proven that YOU didn't violate the patent.
As long as there are bad patents, there will be patent trolls. Attacking the symptoms doesn't really cure the problem. Until we get meaningful patent reform and competent patent examiners, and a comprehensive review of the current wealth of bad patents, you're not winning this game.
The lawyers are winning the game. Nobody else.
* In internet terms, the length of a patent is effectively infinite.
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Friday August 01 2014, @02:34PM
I'm glad to see this happening instead of the usual 'case dropped, no change in the legal landscape...nothing changes' event.
It sounds like this troll bit off more than they can chew, and is now trying to get out of responsibility for a bad choice, and Adam is counter attacking effectively.
This, folks, is one of the few ways that well needed(and way overdue) IP reform can happen.
If I wasn't unemployed, I would send Adam some cash to hopefully win this fight(although I had never heard of him before). :-)
(Score: 2) by e_armadillo on Friday August 01 2014, @06:35PM
I haven't listened to Adam for a few years, my local radio station dropped his show when they changed formats.
Adam is a very entertaining, self proclaimed, chronic complainer. So, not only does he have a very strong leg to stand on, this will feed him a LOT more material for his comedy -- another thing the troll didn't count on. I am certain that Adam is actually in heaven over this. He has a just cause to rally the troops around, and he has plenty more to talk about -- not that Adam is ever at a shortage of things to say :-)
"How are we gonna get out of here?" ... "We'll dig our way out!" ... "No, no, dig UP stupid!"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday August 01 2014, @03:11PM
I learned this back in grade school: If you're getting bullied, punching your bully in the face is a good way to stop him. The reason is that even if you lose the ensuing fight, the bully will see you as too much trouble to go after. And some bullies actually end up running away from you after you show a willingness to fight.
So what these patent trolls are doing, since Adam didn't pay up, is basically saying "Wait, you'll fight? Never mind" in the hopes of avoiding the consequences of their actions, which could well include: Paying Adam's attorney's fees, paying court costs, bar discipline for their lawyers (who are not supposed to advise clients to file questionable lawsuits), and a counter-suit by Adam. Judges tend to really really not like you when you sue somebody without a leg to stand on - you've wasted their valuable time on nonsense.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hubie on Friday August 01 2014, @03:36PM
Years ago I was reading a story about one of the pioneer designers of high-performance auto racing helmets. Early on he apparently was very aggressive defending himself in court against what he considered frivolous lawsuits ("my racing car smashed into a wall at 180 mph and disintegrated, and your helmet didn't prevent me from getting a concussion" etc.) where it would have been much cheaper on a case-by-case basis to have just settled out of court. After doing that a few times he greatly reduced the number of injury lawsuits brought against him.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by edIII on Friday August 01 2014, @04:18PM
What makes it all the more precious is the sour grapes ploy at the lawsuit's failure where the CEO acts flabbergasted that their reasonable behavior and offers were rebuked and only the fans are really being hurt by Adam's deeply unethical actions.
From Personal Audio:
Translation: So, Adam doesn't have any money and PA is no longer interested so please stop giving him money to allow him to possibly invalidate our stupid patent.
Don't know about you, but I want to donate now more than ever.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by mrider on Friday August 01 2014, @06:48PM
I think the translation is more like: It never occurred to us that Adam might fight back effectively. Now we want to chicken out. Please stop giving him money so he won't be able to bring the fight to us.
As I said in another post elsewhere, I fully intend to donate now.
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Friday August 01 2014, @06:50PM
The lesson here is that one should not start an action that one doesn't intend to see to completion.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday August 02 2014, @01:26AM
Oh, I think they intended to 'take it to completion,' of course, the completion was to be he rolls over and pays them a fuckton of money.
Not, he bends them over and cornholes them to completion. I hope he raises enough to be successful.
I also hope this emboldens other victims of this type of shit.
(stocks up on popcorn, weed and beer. This is going to be entertaining!)
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday August 01 2014, @07:11PM
"Getting his fan base to continue to donate to his legal fund is a cynical exploitation of the publicity power he enjoys as an entertainer."
Abusing the laws that has been lobbied by the pharmaceutical corporate thuggy is cynical. Learn that karma is a real bitch when your moral base is non-existant.
I hope they whining patent troll gets quashed and the body parts put up for sale with the blood smell fresh.. ;)