July 2009 Archives
VOLOMEDIA'S PODCASTING PATENT - FOLLOW-UP
July 30, 2009 12:29 PMBy Murgesh Navar
After reading many of the reactions to
our patent announcement yesterday, I want to clarify our plans and
implications as it relates to the patent.
First, it is important
to note that companies routinely apply for and receive technology
patents. As it takes many years to obtain a patent, it is also quite
typical for the methods described by the patent to have become
relatively commonplace by the time the patent issues. VoloMedia's
situation is no exception.
Second, it is well known that,
sometimes, patents end up in the hands of entities that have neither
products nor technologies, but just obtain and hold patents to pursue
infringing behavior through litigation. VoloMedia is not one of these.
We are a real business, a founding member of the ADM, and an engaged
participant in the episodic media download ecosystem with marquee
publisher customers such as ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, Washington Post
and PRI, to name a few.
We also have a great deal of
appreciation for the efforts of podcasters in setting the early trend
towards RSS-based episodic downloads. However, from our vantage point,
downloaded and portable media are currently not on par with web
browser-delivered media. Portable media is still too cumbersome for the
consumer, and really difficult for publishers to measure and monetize
when compared to web browser-delivered media. As many of you may be
aware, VoloMedia has been working hard to address these challenges,
using, for example, its unique iTunes plug-in to provide anonymous
statistical sampling of the consumption of RSS-based media in iTunes
media player, iPods and iPhones via Google Analytics. Podcasters can
freely use this technology without becoming VoloMedia customers, and
build their own Nielsen like panel audiences. This is completely free
to podcasters and no commercial relationship, or even a registration,
with VoloMedia is required.
Now, coming more specifically to
VoloMedia's motivation: The episodic media download "technology"
ecosystem needs to become more seamless, more standardized, and more
interconnected before it can become a mass medium. There are a few ways
such seamlessness can be achieved: (1) A standards body is created
with all the constituent technology providers (e.g., directories, media
players, devices, analytics, advertising, etc.) participating and
agreeing to common standards, (2) a large company with a lot of market
influence and momentum creates a de facto standard, and everyone else
follows or (3) a company uses its intellectual property to help drive a
standard, using its IP to help define and improve the ecosystem for the
benefit of all participants. VoloMedia's motivations are primarily
driven by the desire and need to make the episodic download ecosystem
work, so consumers have a real choice in how they consume any media
that is available on the Internet - whether in a web browser at an
aggregation site like Hulu, or on a downloaded and portable basis using
Apple's iTunes and iPhone or Microsoft's Zune. We will use our
products, technologies, and patents towards this goal.
We are
intent on helping accelerate the growth and viability of downloadable,
episodic media - much of its potential lies in the future.
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VoloMedia's podcasting patent
July 29, 2009 6:00 AMby Murgesh Navar
Our company, VoloMedia,
was awarded U.S. Patent 7,568,213 titled "Method for Providing Episodic
Media" yesterday. The relative breadth of the issued claims under this patent
has given rise to many questions. I'd like to take this opportunity to
provide some context to our announcement: "VoloMedia Awarded U.S. Patent
for Podcasting". Over the years, I have heard arguments, pro and con, to the
utility and necessity of an intellectual property (IP) system. One one
hand, there are arguments that say exclusive rights to ideas awarded on a
patent excludes others from doing what they want to do and, therefore, IP
systems close down access to knowledge. On the other hand, patents and
intellectual property rights do drive innovation, as well as investments in new
ideas. I do not wish to debate the merits of the U.S. patent system, but just
acknowledge there are two sides to the issue of patent awards. VoloMedia has
filed a dozen U.S. patent applications since 2003. Patent no. 7,568,213 is the
first in the pipeline to issue. We expect the others to follow suit.
With specific reference
to our newly issued 7,568,213 patent, it was filed in November 2003, almost a
year before the start of podcasting. This helps underscore the point,
that for nearly six years, VoloMedia has been focused on helping publishers
monetize portable media.... and has continued these efforts with the addition of
a wide array of smartphone-based applications. The patent that issued
yesterday helps to tie together and reinforce the value of the various
technologies and services that VoloMedia has developed to help accomplish this
objective. VoloMedia's intent is to continue to work collaboratively
with key participants in the industry, leveraging its unique range of products
to further grow and accelerate the market. Today, podcasting is 100%
RSS-based. However, the patent is not RSS-dependent.
Rather, it covers all episodic media downloads. It
just so happens that, today, the majority of episodic media downloads are
RSS-based podcasts, which is why we titled our announcement the way we did.
The episodic media
download industry is still in its infancy. There will come a day when all the
content on Hulu is available as an episodic download. Consumers will then have
legitimate choices in how they consume their media: on a downloaded and
portable basis, or by visiting a content aggregation website. As the medium
matures, one would expect to see new entrants into the episodic download arena.
The impact of a strong growing IP portfolio is such that we would
expect new entrants into the podcasting arena to have a collaborative
relationship with VoloMedia, just as do many of the current players. For
reference, below are the claims issued under U.S. patent 7,568,213:
---
1. A method for
providing episodic media, the method comprising: providing a user with access
to a channel dedicated to episodic media, wherein the episodic media provided
over the channel is pre-defined into one or more episodes by a remote publisher
of the episodic media; receiving a subscription request to the channel
dedicated to the episodic media from the user; automatically downloading
updated episodic media associated with the channel dedicated to the episodic
media to a computing device associated with the user in accordance with the
subscription request upon availability of the updated episodic media, the
automatic download occurring without further user interaction; and providing
the user with: an indication of a maximum available channel depth, the channel
depth indicating a size of episodic media yet to be downloaded from the channel
and size of episodic media already downloaded from the channel, the channel
depth being specified in playtime or storage resources, and the ability to
modify the channel depth by deleting selected episodic media content, thereby
overriding the previously configured channel depth.
2. The method of claim
1, further comprising automatically providing the user with an indication of
the availability of updated episodic media via the channel dedicated to the
episodic media in accordance with the subscription request.
3. The method of claim
1, further comprising synchronizing the updated episodic media automatically
downloaded to the computing device associated with the user with a portable
computing device communicatively coupled to the computing device associated
with the user.
4. The method of claim
3, wherein synchronization of the updated episodic media automatically occurs
in response to a predetermined user setting.
5. The method of claim
3, wherein synchronization of the updated episodic media occurs in response to
a request received from the user.
6. The method of claim
1, wherein the updated episodic media is made available to users not associated
with the computing device over a local area network.
7. The method of claim
1, wherein the automatic download is further based on a priority assigned to
the channel.
8. The method of claim
3, wherein the channel dedicated to the episodic media is reduced in size
during synchronization in order to fit available cache storage within the
portable device.
9. The method of claim
1, wherein the channel dedicated to the episodic media is modified in size by
removing one or more episodes of episodic media.
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