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Another Hotspot Redirect Patent Collection Attempt

Posted by timothy on from the skilled-in-the-art-of-fleecing dept.

Glenn Fleishman writes "Acacia Technologies is turning its sights from collecting streaming media patent fees to Wi-Fi hotspot gateway redirection, we report at Wi-Fi Networking News. The company acquired a patent that they say covers the use of technology that redirects a login attempt by an unauthenticated user to a login gateway page. They want a minimum of $1,000 per quarter in royalties. Nomadix already claims a patent on this, while we quote an early Wayport executive who says that Wayport has prior art on it. Will community hotspots using NoCatAuth fall under this patent-enforcement attempt? Too early to tell."

4 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Possible loop-hole? by powerpuffgirls · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The rerouted IP address provides content to the user machine in which at least a majority of the content is different from that expected to be obtained by the user machine

    How about showing the requested page as is (for example google.com goes to google's homepage) but with a DHTML overlay or framing to indicate this is the only page to go until the user's properly authenticated?

  2. Maybe this isn't so bad by Phil+Karn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe this isn't so bad after all. One of the few pluses to patents is the way they sometimes keep people from using really bad ideas that they should be prevented from using. This is a good example.

    1. Re:Maybe this isn't so bad by sploo22 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      How so? I don't see why having to register to access a free hotspot is so horrible. If you have to provide a valid email address, it provides at least a minimum amount of accountability in case the service is abused. And it really doesn't cost you any more than 5 minutes.

      I think this is just another example of people feeling entitled to the unlimited charity of others.

      --
      Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)
  3. Prior art in Whistle InterJet by tlambert · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is prior art in the forced proxy authentication in the Whistle InterJet, circa 1997/1998, prior to the purchase of the company by IBM.

    -- Terry (former Whistle Communications and IBM employee)