[ale] Phillips CD patent

[mainwizard at vei.net]

How would they prove you knew there was a problem? Was it a certified letter? Return receipt? Throw it away and claim you never got it, what can they do. Of course, if they monitor mail lists like this one you're screwed. :-)
Ed.

----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Bergeron
Sent: 12/14/2002 8:41:08 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] Phillips CD patent

> Looks to me like a total "scare" letter.  They're trying to [ab]use you 
> as a registered customer (I'm assuming thats how they got your info) 
> into helping them find companies that aren't paying royalties, or that 
> are developing "clone" drives and not paying Philips.  Letters like 
> these just show how the company doesn't care about the "consumer" at 
> all, and just about their profits.  IMHO, it appears that they're 
> sending these "officially looking legal threat documents" in an attempt 
> to get some info on the competition and possibly sue any infringers of 
> thier IP.  They're not threatening you and they didn't make any demands 
> in the letter, so I would disregard it (but that's just my opinion).  
> 
> I think it's still pretty sleazy of that company... and I will learn 
> from your experience and _NEVER_ purchase a product from Philips.  
> 
> As always, others may have differing opinions...
> 
> -CB
> 
> 
> 
> James P. Kinney III wrote:
> 
> >OK. I tried posting a tarball f the scanned images of the letter, but
> >there is a max size on the list that prevents it. So I put them on my
> >webserver
> >
> >http://www.localnetsolutions.com/~jkinney/
> >
> >The images are big.
> >
> >On Sat, 2002-12-14 at 17:40, Christopher Bergeron wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>Hmmm.. IANAL, but this sounds like a scare tactic.  If you bought a 
> >>product and aren't the manufacturer of the drive, I don't think you can 
> >>be held accountable for creating cdroms/dvdroms with the device.  Since 
> >>you're not "creating" the cdroms by hand (as if it were possible), and 
> >>you're using a vendor's device, the vendor should be the only person 
> >>that can be accountable.
> >>
> >>Thats just my belief, but as I said, I Am Not A Lawyer.
> >>
> >>-CB
> >>
> >>Any possibility of you posting the letter or a scanned image of it?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>James P. Kinney III wrote:
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >>>I just got the strangest letter from Phillips IP legal group. Basically,
> >>>they own butt loads of patents on CD technology. Including the making of
> >>>the disks themselves. Apparently, there are some cd-r cd-rw and dvd-r
> >>>and dvd-rw disk makers that are not paying out their license fees to
> >>>Phillips for the making of the media. So the letter is a warning that if
> >>>I, or my company specifically, is using any of the "bootleg" blank
> >>>disks, Phillips will then consider that I am an accomplice and will be
> >>>subject to paying the license fee on the disks myself.
> >>>
> >>>WTF!!!
> >>>
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Ale mailing list
> >>Ale at ale.org
> >>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>    
> >>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 

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