Attention: Your Podcasts Are Still In Danger

Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - 11:00 AM

The Patent for the Lego Man (Aaron Anderer/Flickr)

For years, a company called Personal Audio has been slowly filing lawsuits against podcasters, saying that the very act of podcasting without paying Personal Audio a licensing fee was a violation of a patent held by the company. A couple of months ago, it seemed as though the company had been stopped in its tracks by a settlement it made with podcasting juggernaut Adam Carolla, for exactly $0. But yesterday, Personal Audio won a $1.3 million verdict against CBS.

CBS argued that the patent held by Personal Audio was invalid, but a jury disagreed. The verdict found that CBS should pay $1.3 million, which is substantially less than the $7.8 million that Personal Audio allegedly asked for.

Personal Audio has been held up a shining example of everything that's wrong with the patent system in the US because it's not a company that actually makes anything. It's just a holding company that has this patent and files lawsuits against a variety of podcasters. It has gone after Jesse Thorn's Maximum Fun network, Marc Maron's WTF, and of course, Adam Carolla.

Last month, in a press release about its settlement with Adam Carolla, the company said "Personal Audio has dismissed several podcasters from litigation because it was not worth litigating over the amount of damages involved" - essentially "you are not making enough money to be worth suing." Personal Audio also told Zoe Chace for This American Life that it had no intention of going after non-profit podcasters at this time, so your favorite public radio shows are safe. But since this ruling validated the Personal Audio patent, if a for-profit show or podcast network ever becomes popular enough, they will likely be in the crosshairs of Personal Audio.

For now, Personal Audio is moving on to lawsuits against NBC and Fox.

Comments [4]

Chris Garrett from Atlanta, GA

So I'm one of the literally tens of fans of both tl;dr and the Carolla podcast. Carolla claims he did an interview with WNYC that they spiked because they ambushed him and it went poorly for the interviewer. I haven't heard anything about this on OTM, this seems like it would make a good "he said/he said" story about the media, if nothing else.

Is there anything in the works about this? Also, I know there was some sort of time injunction until Carolla can talk about it, is there a bigger story planned then? This podcast patent troll suit also seems like a big thing, media-wise.

Sep. 17 2014 08:05 PM

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Preston from Brooklyn, NY

I second the request for a new post on this topic.

My specific question is, "why do we have to call distributed audio recordings, 'podcasts?'"

We've been listening to audiobooks and recorded lectures for years. They used to come on audio cassettes in snail mail. Even recorded radio shows were available (mostly vintage, but same diff).

Sep. 16 2014 12:11 PM

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Michael Weiss from Ann Arbor, MI

Important context for this ruling at the Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/after-setback-texas-fight-against-podcasting-patent-troll-will-continue. In particular note that:

<i>When Newegg challenged Sovereign’s so-called shopping cart patent, it too lost after a five day trial in the Eastern District of Texas. On appeal, the Federal Circuit found that no reasonable jury could have held the patent valid. CBS has pending motions before the district court and, if those don’t succeed, it can also appeal. So while today’s verdict is very disappointing, it is not the end of the fight against Personal Audio.</i>

Sep. 16 2014 11:53 AM

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Tony from Albany, NY

I think a full episode of TLDR needs to be done on this topic. If it has and I missed it I'm sorry but if not then please do this show. Thanks

Sep. 16 2014 11:27 AM

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TLDR is a short podcast and blog about the internet by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman. You can subscribe to our podcast here. You can follow our blog here. We’re also on Twitter, and we play Team Fortress 2 more or less constantly, so find us there if you like to communicate via computer games from six years ago.