Acacia Update: Still Flying Underneath the Radar

Standing on the SidelinesEven though some organizations have taken this more aggressive stance, many have chosen to stay out of this debate. The Internet Streaming Media Alliance, for example, does not have an official position as to the validity of Acacia’s patents and does not provide any support to its members on this issue. "As far as ISMA’s internal discussions regarding Acacia, believe it or not, there haven’t been any," says Michael LoBue, executive director of ISMA. "I checked ISMA’s policies. In my interpretation it would be against ISMA anti-trust guidelines to delve into this topic." No ISMA member has even raised the question yet within the organization, LoBue saysm but he credits that to members’ pre-existing awareness of these strict anti-trust rules. "While it is conceivable that the organization could commission a consultant to study the impacts of [Acacia’s] licensing scheme on the technical specifications the organization is developing and take a general ‘inform and educate’ posture with the membership and the market," LoBue says, "ISMA is not contemplating that action at this time."

One organization that’s been silent about Acacia’s licensing efforts has been the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Though the NAB defines itself as a trade association representing the interests of "free, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters," many of its members are also streaming content. A legal counsel for NAB, who asked not to be identified, says that none of NAB’s members had asked about Acacia, and if none of its members ask about something, the organization doesn’t address it. NAB members who do want the organization to look into this situation need to contact NAB’s board members, who can initiate such an inquiry.

Some organizations, though, have been confronted by their members with questions about Acacia but still don’t provide much in the way of information or advice. One member of the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) says that when he contacted the organization, the only advice that he received was to simply ignore Acacia’s licensing demands. There may be some validity to this advice in lieu of still-unresolved litigation, but this anonymous member felt that the NCTC had not fulfilled its obligations to its constituents. The NCTC had no comment on any questions related to Acacia.