Patent Suit Killing Online College Courses
The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that Acacia Technologies is suing colleges for patent infringement. Acacia claims to hold five patents that cover streaming media used in online courses and wants colleges to license the technology to the tune of 2% of all online course revenues. Virgil Varvel, a computer-assisted-instruction specialist for the University of Illinois system said online courses are “already a borderline return of investment. We would have to stop doing what we’re doing.” That’s how simple it is. Here’s a software patent that is going to stifle a cool technology and reduce the public’s access to education. Online courses reach working people, adult students, students with disabilities and other groups who often are unable to participate in traditional courses. The ability to use the web to reach these people more effectively and to provide them access to educational opportunities is a good thing, and clearly a far better thing than giving Acacia a private monopoly on an obvious and commonplace technology. Tell your representative. Software patents must die!
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