IMPORTANT CALL FROM THE EFF. A patent troll (a company that collects patents and essentially extorts money by threatening to file lawsuits) is claiming to own the patent on podcasting. They have filed suits against CBS and NBC, and sent cease-and-desist letters against some small podcasting operations, trying to force them to shut down or pay fees.
The EFF is taking up this cause, but it needs 1: money for the legal fees and 2: any examples of prior art that you might have—examples, or articles or discussions on the subject from October 1996 or earlier. They’re not just looking for examples of audio podcasting, either. These guys seem to be trying to claim they own the concept of posting new installments to a themed collection of files—which could also include online serial fiction, comics, blog article series, and art. So if you know of any examples or publications describing early versions of podcasting or any other kind of episode distribution over the Internet, that’s exactly what the EFF is looking for. (More details available here: http://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/3884/disseminating-media-content-representing-episodes-issued-patent-prior-art-requ)
If you have any examples of prior art, or wish to search for them, you can find links in the EFF article to submit them to the EFF, or send them to podcasting@eff.org
Help Save Podcasting! | Electronic Frontier Foundation