this patent stuff has gone rather too far

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

> > LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 17 (NB) -- Does anyone own
> > multimedia? Compton's New Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tribune
> > Publishing, claims it does and it has the patent to prove it.
> >
> > According to the company, anyone selling information in a  multimedia
> > format will need to pay license fees to Compton's no  matter what the
> > device used to distribute multimedia. Company  officials say interactive
> > television services like those announced  by Time Warner and GTE,
> > graphical on-line services such as  America Online and Prodigy, and
> > compact disc read-only memory  (CD-ROM) title developers will all be
> > obligated to pay or face  legal action.
> >
> > The US Patent Number is 5,241,671 titled: "Multimedia Search System
> > Using A Plurality Of Entry Path Means Which Indicate Inter-relatedness
> > Of Information." The patent was issued on August 31, 1993, and describes
> > the technology as: "A database search system that retrieves multimedia
> > information  in a flexible, user friendly system. The search system uses
> > a multimedia database consisting of text, picture, audio, and animated
> > data. That database is searched through multiple graphical and textual
> > entry paths."
>
> ***
> >
>
> > Four ways were enumerated for the licensing: one percent of the  net
> > profits, rising to three percent for those who do not comply  by June
> > 30, 1994; a strategic licensing agreement; distribution  of multimedia
> > information which it will buy for resale at a 65 percent discount; or
> > purchase of a Compton's tool set for title development with accompanying
> > run-time fees for distribution.