Patents and the threat to open source

Have you heard of the media company Acacia? Probably not but actually quite a few website owners have. Many of them have received FINAL NOTICES from
Acacia Media Technologies Corporation (www.acaciaresearch.com). The leading light of Acacia (Newport Beach, California) is Robert A. Berman, who
claims that his company owns a handful of U.S. Patents (Patents Nos. 5,132,992; 5,235,275; 5,550,863; 6,002,720; 6,144,702) and 17 International
Patents covering the transmission and receipt of audio/video content via the Internet.