How prior would you like that art?

Jeneane's Phonecon made me smile, but the early days of telephony were full of inventive people trying out new services and business models.

With the Patent Office moving toward rejecting the Eolas plug-in patent on prior art grounds, maybe it's time for them to reconsider the Acacia and SightSound patents that take an obvious idea and add the word 'digital', and then go around shaking down anyone doing rich media online.

Alexander Graham Bell invested heavily in a company to send opera over the telephone for a fee in the 19th Century.

Live music over the phone was happening in 1877, and remote playback by telephone in 1888 and even remote paid playback of recordings over the phone on demand, from 1909.