Fark NotNewsletter: Patent trolls and swearing go hand in hand

This is a multi-part message in MIME format... ------------=_1643836102-56147-53870 Content-Type: text/html Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [3D"The](3D")= > [3D"Facebook"](3D") [=3D"Twitter"](3D") [3D"Totalfark"](3D") Having trouble reading thi= s email? View it online [here](3D". Comments thread: [ 02751](3D" Unsubscribe links are at the bottom of this message. =20 =20 ________________________ A message = from Drew Curtis: ____________________= ____ Hey everyone, hope your week is going well. First = off - the new TotalFark feature discussion didn't happen last week, ho= wever [it's here now as of today](3D"). And guess what - I acciden= tally mainpaged it. Good times. Anyhow, that's a great example = of the kind of new feature conversations we have on TotalFark on occas= ion. It's always great to get input from folks who often have better = ideas than I do. If you don't have TF already, first quarter is a fantastic= time to [sign up for TotalFark](3D"=) because ad revenues are alway= s abysmal after Christmas, and it would greatly help my sanity and Fark in = general if you signed up. Thanks to everyone who has already. = At 4 p.m. Thursday it's the [Fark News Livestream](3D"=)= >. We'll do mostly silly stuff, but people have been asking me lately= what the hell is Putin up to. I haven't had an answer until this wee= k - I finally figured it out. Turns out he's not hiding anything= , either. We'll lead with what his real goal is, then quickly diverge= into ridiculousness including monkeys, ice storms, and a rabbit hole round= -up of terrible NFL Super Bowl music videos. OK, here's a long one f= or you this week. Apparently yesterday [an EFF podcast dropped](3D") disc= ussing my involvement helping Adam Carolla and Marc Maron fight of a patent= troll a few years back. Except it didn't tell quite the entire story= . First, the relevant transcript text: ---- Danny: So t= his was pretty early on in podcasting. Not like now we have like thousands = and thousands, but it was, it was far enough along that people were kind of= making a name and getting pretty successful about it, like worth, hitting = them up for a few dollars. So you decided to fight back, right. And, and li= ke, how did you strategize? How did you decide what that looked like? Cause= you didn't want to get into a court case, right? Marc: It was sort = of a slow, weird process because we wanted to fight back. But we knew that = not unlike a divorce, that the shakedown was, they will bleed you until you= gave them this base amount. So the assumption they made is like, here's wh= ere all the money is. But very few of us were making that much money. Certa= inly not enough money to even afford, you know, half of a lawsuit that it w= ould take. So we ended up meeting with this consultant guy, you know, a bun= ch of us, again at Carolla's garage, who was like the troll warrior. Like, = you know what you remember that guy's name. Brendan: It was Drew Cur= tis, who was, uh, uh, from the website FARC. Danny: Oh, wow. Drew. Marc: Yeah. He sat us down the group of us and said, all right, it's = going to cost about 300 grand. I got a plan. And we're like, wait, what? We= can't, I can't afford it. You know? And then ultimately what happened is b= ecause Brendan and I had worked with you guys to raise money for some= other stuff you were doing, we had a relationship with you. And I thought = I said to Brendan, I said, this has to be in their purview to take this on = and we should make them aware of what's happening in our industry around th= is. And it was like a hail Mary pass. We were like, come on EFF you got we = got to help us. And that was the, that was the strategy. And when you guys = took it up, we were like, man, I'd tell you it pays to have friends. I tell= you. Cindy: Well, we were so happy to do it. ----- So= I've gotten a bunch of people asking me why I charged these guys $300k for= consulting that they apparently didn't need. Here's what really happened: First off, I didn't charge them $300k. I didn't charge them an= ything. And I gave them the battle plan they eventually used to win. Back in the early days of podcasting, a troll hit a bunch of podcast= ers on a stupid patent. Meanwhile, Adam Carolla's partner Mike August= hit me up because he saw my TED talk on patent trolls and was wondering if= I might help. I spent hours reviewing the troll's patent with my fr= iend and IP attorney Tim Wilson looking for attack vectors. The main = question that stuck out to me was why the troll had chosen to target this s= pecific group of podcasters. Because the target selection didn't make= sense - two were huge at the time, the rest were successful but there didn= 't appear to be any Google search that would put all these podcasters on th= e same hit list for a patent troll. After digging into the patent we = figured it out - the troll appeared to think they had a patent on downloada= ble lists and all of the target podcasts had one on their own websites.&nbs= p; So now we had a viable plan of attack. Downloadable lists is= an incredibly stupid patent, and we figured that would be an easy one to v= aporize, so we called Tim's friend at the EFF to see if we could get them i= nvolved. We had a conference call on a car ride from the airport to S= XSW, discussed all the details about how weak this patent was, and so on.&n= bsp; Gave them the entire plan and asked for their help. And the EFF= passed on it. Didn't want to get involved. Tim was on the call= as well, I texted him today as I was writing this to make sure I hadn't go= tten that wrong - he confirmed it. I pulled some old emails and found= out what happened next was interesting. So with the EFF route out of play,= Tim ran the idea through his network and found that both Jones Day and Tur= ner Boyd were willing to take the case pro-bono. After a second meeti= ng with the EFF, suddenly they were interested again. I met with the= podcasters in person, outlined the plan, explained what it would probably = cost. They took the plan, the EFF joined in, crowdfunded it, and the = rest is history. I helped hype it where I could on Fark, but they car= ried the offense the rest of the way. Anyhow, that's what went down.= I'm not trying to take credit for the win, just trying to clarify wh= at really happened. The short vague reference on the EFF podcast seem= ed to lead some people to believe that I scammed everyone out of $300k with= useless advice. It was $0 and what I gave them was the battle plan they ac= tually used. Maybe they still would have beaten the troll without me= and Tim figuring out where specifically to strike the patent troll, buildi= ng the attack plan, pulling a reluctant EFF back to the table, and meeting = with the podcasters in L.A. to give them the plan. Or maybe the podca= sters wouldn't have beaten the troll without all that and everyone would've= been living in a cardboard box six months later. Who knows. An= yhow, I'm glad they won. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. _____________= ___________ End Drew transmission ________________________ Quick note: The SwearJar will be ava= ilable to all Farkers starting today! If you're wondering what the f#@= k that is, you can [find out about the= SwearJar here](3D"https://w=). XOXO, DisseminationMonkey= > Top Comments Some of the top-voted smartest and funniest comments from the past wee= k Funny: Notabunny explained [why most of us haven't heard about all the pro= fessional athletes who are supposedly dropping dead](3D") UltimaCS= found the ["beautiful girl"= with "tiny breast and thick legs" requested in a job posting](3D"ht=) oldernell revealed [how th= e supposed sudden deaths of "over 100 professional athletes" is even scarie= r than we thought](3D" ryant123 called out Reuters= on their tweet showing [small fires b= eing set on railroad tracks to keep them from freezing over](3D=) = Nicki Minaj's Cousin's Friend's Swollen Testicle reacted to a sto= ry about [a Catholic priest who called= off a middle school basketball game when two men wouldn't wear their masks=](3D"=) markie_farkie explained that [toots in a jar don't count as NFTs](3D") xanadia= n [spoke Britishly about a dilapi= dated British house](3D"=) scottydoesntknow gave more inf= ormation about [the strange wording in= a job ad](3D"https://=) Warthog let us know when [we wouldn't have to worry about the type of accident= that happened with an F-35](3D") Someone Else's Alt [laid rest to further discussion of Brian Laun= drie](3D") Smart: MBFGeek offered advice on selling NFTs bosto= nguy shared [a story about a= breakup](3D"h=) EvilEgg talked about [doing free work for the exposure](3D") bughunter= discussed [a list of 11 sig= ns that you drink too much alcohol](3D"ht=) Pocket Ninja ha= d [a lot to say about minimalism](3D")demonfaerie explained that [Neil Young never expected Spotify to choose his music over Joe = Rogan's podcast](3D" shastacola pointed out [something that two artists who pulled their musi= c from Spotify have in common](3D") CSB Sunday Morning: = [Your first tim= e ... driving a car](3D") Smart: wademh attempt= ed to [back a trailer into a campsite = at the age of 14](3D".=) Funny (tie): vudukungfu = [had a run-in with the long arm of the law Funny (tie): cherryl taggart's](3D")[mom was trusting or daring or both](3D") Politics Funny: Kat09tails had [a sad goodbye for a Washington state trooper who died= of COVID after he retired early rather than get vaccinated](3D") = Chariset made [a dirty econo= mics joke when people found themselves unable to cancel their Spotify accou= nts](3D=) ralphjr was [making sure it was all worth it](3D" mrshowrules wa= s interested in [stigginit to Spotify Mr. Coffee Nerves described](3D"https:/=)[what happened to Trooper Robert LaMay](3D") Polit= ics Smart: OldRod was unimpressed by [what Glenn Greenwald recently referred to as "a g= rave attack on press freedom"](3D") Side note: While looking for the original= of Greenwald's tweet, I found that he's often concerned about [attacks on press freedom](3D" mrshowru= les suggested [ways of cance= ling a subscription or getting a refund you're due](3D=) DoBeDoBeD= o thought about [unvaccinat= ed NC state workers getting extra time off to take weekly COVID tests](=3D" discussed [the= harm that Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill would cause](3D" T= he Third Man considered [a s= ign on a Jimmy John's location claiming they were temporarily closed becaus= e of a labor shortage](3D" To= p Contest Entries Some of the top-voted contest entries f= rom last week Photoshops: Terrapin Bound = g> [welcomed the new sheriff](3D") Yammering_Splat_Vector flew thi= s statue to a familiar scene Yammering_Splat_Vector = > shared [Escher's little-known wood e= ngraving](3D"=) Yammering_Splat_Vector [used radar domes as a fabric pattern](3D") samsqu= atch's [office assistant went= for a swim](3D"https:/=) Yammering_Splat_Vector [shared some salty kisses](3D") RedZoneTuba = ong> remembered [what it was like when= Chris Christie was the governor of New Jersey](3D"https:/=) Yammering_Spl= at_Vector showed [Vladimir P= utin riding yet another thing](=3D" Terrapin Bound [vividness to this photo](3D") Wrongo [took a trip to the real Springfie= ld](3D"=) Fartist Friday: [Drawings a real or fantasy dinos= aur](3D") thatguyoverthere70 depicted [an interspecies romance](3D") This week's= Fartist Friday theme, brought to you by E-brake= : In honor of Groundhog Day this week, we'll write Odes to our favorit= e rodents. Marmots, muskrats, meeces... maybe even a certain squirrel. All = poetry forms allowed and all poems must be created just for this contest. Farktography: You Better Have a Good Explanation for ThisThis contest ended in a tie between orionid and&nb= sp;orionid with ["In = the Beginning..."](3D" and ["Death Val= ley Self Portrait"](=3D" Fark = Headlines of the Week A selection of some of the top head= lines from last week [Anyone who touched macaque better see a doctor](3D"=) [It's National Florida Day, so strip naked, = put on Crocs, go outside, attack an alligator that was caught in your septi= c tank then use the Stand Your Ground defense when you're arrested](3D") [Feral hog= 's femoral feast renders hunter ephemeral](3D") [The Merriam-Web= ster word of the day for January 26 is 'bamboozle' as in: "Some plants requ= ire very specific soils, but bamboozle grow just about anywhere"](3D") [On this day in= history, in 1302, Dante was exiled from Florence, possibly because he wasn= 't even supposed to be there that day](3D") [Rumors of Tom Brady's retirement = may have been inflated](3D") 🎶= 27926; Hey Hey, My My / Take my songs off Spotify / Joe Rogan's dangerous /= and people could die/ Hey Hey My My 🎶🎶 [On= the heels of Biden's ice cream scandal, now he needs to replace Breyers](3D")= > [Tenness= ee elephants fear Maus, vote to ban them](3D"=) [Problem: Too many people are canc= elling your subscription service because you cancelled Neil Young. Solution= : cancel cancellations](3D") Blood for the blood god, more blood for the doughnut = [To ignite= and engage, I distill with my cats in a cage](3D") [Mirror spreadin' out / = Thrusters powered down / About that dish inside Lagrange / And you know wha= t I'm talkin' about / Just gotta wait for it to calibrate / On that Webb, s= ights new and strange / They got a lot of nice views](3D") [Anti-vaxxers more prone to depression. So are the people who have to l= isten to them](3D") Fark Weird= News Quiz (brought to you by ox45tallboy)= Another fun time on the Quiz this week, although I still don't know= how a goat is going to help with repairs to the neighbor's tool shed. On t= he Quiz itself, we had three people make it into the elusive 1000 club, whe= re I'll be serving seco de cabrito for no particular reason. T= he Third Man came out on top with 1036, followed by r= ick42 in second place with 1026 and Evildog = in third with 1009. richh99 and Jojo_The= DogFacedBoy tied for fourth, barely missing out with a score of 99= 9, and spudbeach made fifth with 995. The hard= est question on this week's Hard Quiz was about the weird persona of Percy = Thrillington, who was an early attempt at viral marketing. Percy placed cla= ssified ads in UK papers detailing his comings and goings in an attempt to = generate buzz. When "Thrillington" was finally released, the few people who= bothered with it discovered that it was a jazz re-imagining of "Ram", whic= h only 50% of quiztakers knew was the only album attributed to Paul and Lin= da McCartney. Fun fact, Percy Thrillington [got himself a Twitter account](3D") to help promote the re-release of "Ram",= which came with a free copy of "Thrillington". The easiest qu= estion on last week's Hard Quiz was about the 555.55 carat "Enigma" jewel t= hat's about to go on sale. 77% of quiztakers knew that this was a black dia= mond, marketed as "possibly from a meteor" although most gemologists say it= 's just a rock from the Earth. To give you an idea of 555.55 carats, t= hat's a hair under a quarter pound. If you've seen the famous Hope Diamond = at the Smithsonian, it's only 45.52 carats. This is a ridiculously large ro= ck, so don't be surprised if Kanye buys it in an attempt to woo K= im back from Pete Davidson. The hardest question on last week's Easy= Quiz was about the rollout of McDonald's new meatless burger. Only 48% of = quiztakers knew they were actually all in on the silly name "McPlant", whic= h sounds like Grimace went undercover to infiltrate the Hamburglar's theft = ring. Hey McDonald's, even Fark quiztakers agree my idea for "McPossible ''= is better. Call me! The easiest question on last week's Easy Quiz w= as about the celebration of fromage on January 20th. Turophiles that we are= here at Fark, 94% of quiztakers recognized that fromage is French for "che= ese". Although I'm not sure if that's what French people say in their group= photos. It doesn't seem like it ends in a smile, and then they have to put= "le" in front to maintain grammar. If you missed out on last = week's Quiz, [be sure to catch up](3D"=) now that you know a few of= the answers. Congratulations once again to the winners, and we'll do it al= l again this week. --------------------------------------------------------------- ([Fark.com](3D"") sent this newsletter emai= l to: {EMAIL}) To stop these emails, go to the Notifications tab of your [MyFark profile](3D"https:=) to change your subscription preferences. Or, [click here to unsubscribe](3D") from newsletter emails, even if your Fark login isn't '{NAME}'. [Click her= e to unsubscribe from ALL Fark emails](3D"). 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