The way a suit usually works, however, is that Company A sues Company B for "infringing" upon its technology, or using it illegally. On Friday, however, a startup sent a number of cease-and-desist letters to several tech bigwigs (Microsoft, Adobe, Real Networks and Apple) accusing them of not using their technology. This could be a first.

According to a press release, a company called Media Rights Technologies and BlueBeat.com, an Internet radio station that is owned by MRT, said that it has developed and tested the X1 SeCure Recording Control, a technology to prevent digital audio streams from being "ripped," or copied.

What MRT claims, however, is this: "MRT asserts Apple, Microsoft, Real and Adobe have produced billions of these products without regard for the DMCA or the rights of American Intellectual Property owners, actively avoiding the use of MRT's technologies. Failure to comply with this demand could result in a federal court injunction to any of the above named parties to cease production or sale of their products and/or the imposition of statutory damages of at least $200 to $2500 for each product distributed or sold." (Emphasis mine.)

What this says to me is that the companies may be sued for not infringing upon MRT's technology, a rather novel take.

I called MRT chief executive Hank Risan for his take on it. According to him, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into law by President Clinton, and invoked in the Grokster decision, forces companies to comply with the act and provide copy-control technologies like the X1 Control, one of the reasons why Grokster lost the case.

Risan said MRT is acting on behalf of BlueBeat, which has an obligation to protect its own licensed content. According to Risan, he had previously worked with the The Museum of Musical Instruments to protect its content. But the RIAA filed its own $150 million C&D letter against MoMI.

"In the summer of 2001, The MoMI was hit with a cease-and-desist letter from the RIAA for copyright infringement, alleging damages of $150 million to their members. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Microsoft had circumvented The MoMI's copy protection, exposing hidden music files in an "upgrade" to the Windows Media Player, turning secure MoMI performances into downloads," MRT said.

According to Risan, MRT doesn't want a repeat of that letter.

MRT took its technology to Microsoft, "which blew us off," Risan said."This gives us standing in federal court." According to Risan, devices makers like Apple, Real, and Microsoft are deliberately designing their players with loopholes to allow copyright infringement.

"I'm going to put a stop to it," Risan said. "People are being used. Kids are being sued, when the the real culprits are these device manufacturers."

This position allowed Risan and MRT to justify its C&D letters, which will be followed by suits in ten days if the companies fail to respond. How much will MRT be asking for? "$200 billion at the minimum," Risan responded, noting that the suits could also extend to companies like YouTube and CNN, which also use the infringing technology.

Like many, my initial response was skepticism. But check out the first link above. These patent companies do score wins. And the thinking undoubtedly goes like this: "There's $200 billion out there for the taking. If we could settle for just 1 percent of that amount, we could be very rich men." We'll see.

Any why not give not the last word to Catherine Tate, via this possibly copyright-infringing YouTube video? As they might say, "Those dirty bastards. Those technology-avoiding, loophole-designing bastards."