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InterTrust vs. Microsoft
Can Victor Shear Bring Down Microsoft?
Imagine you had a nickel for every compact disc that's ever been made. The patent holders of the CD technology do have nearly all those nickels. Sony Corp. of America and Royal Philips Electronics get 3 cents for every CD manufactured, plus 3% of the price of every CD player sold.
That's a pretty good revenue stream--several hundred million dollars annually--as is the one that flows to the ten companies that hold the key patents on the DVD. Even the subversive, intangible MP3--that symbol of piracy triumphant--generates money for its patent holders; Thomson Multimedia and the Fraunhofer Institute of Erlangen, Germany, split 75 cents per MP3 player and $3.50 to $5.00 per ripping device.
Now there's a new set of technologies whose royalty stream may eventually swamp those of all its forebears: the so-called trusted systems and digital rights management (DRM) technologies that enable secure transmission of valuable files--audio, video, or text--across digital networks.
InterTrust is seeking an injunction barring distribution of about 85% of Microsoft's product line. (Though the DRM and trusted systems technologies form only a piece of each product, they have been, in Microsoft's trademark fashion, tightly integrated into these larger programs.) InterTrust seeks damages too--which could be trebled if Microsoft were shown to have acted willfully.
Stop fighting for that useless DRM5, which has been unlocked with a small wonder 32K program

posted by Jerry permanent link