Podcasting Patented by Marketing Company
by Wesley Thomas ~ July 30th, 2009. Filed under: Tech.
Ars Technica reports that VoloMedia, an “advertising and tracking firm,” has somehow managed to get themselves a patent for a method of “providing episodic media content,” or, as VoloMedia likes to call it, podcasting.
“VoloMedia’s intent is to continue to work collaboratively with key participants in the industry,” says the company’s Murgesh Navar, “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.”
According to Navar, the company originally filed for the patent in 2003, “almost a year before the start of podcasting.” Somehow we doubt this will lend VoloMedia any credibility, though.
(source)
July 30th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Patents of this kind are ridiculous. There were people “podcasting” before it was a thing. For one, I know Scott Johnson of Extra Life Radio had a show before you could even hook it up with iTunes or an RSS feed. You would just download the MP3 from his site. I think it was even pre-2003, so suck it VoloMedia.