Today is EFF day at Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. Maron is releasing an interview with me, in my official capacity as Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. WTF is also donating $5,000 to EFF and will match up to $5,000 in donations through June. Donate to the campaign here!

Since launching the WTF podcast from his garage in September 2009, Maron has interviewed guests ranging from Carrot Top to President Obama. In January 2013, a patent troll called Personal Audio threatened Maron and other podcasters. Wielding a vague patent on “disseminating media content,” Personal Audio claimed to have invented podcasting. With support of the public, EFF challenged Personal Audio’s patent at the Patent Office. We won that challenge and are now defending our victory on appeal.

WTF is still produced from Maron’s Los Angeles backyard (or as he calls it, the Cat Ranch) and I was thrilled to be invited over. I updated Maron on the latest news regarding our challenge to Personal Audio’s podcasting patent and about about the ongoing fight for legislative patent reform. We also talked about some of our other patent cases, like our recent victory against a patent owner who claimed to own the idea of having a ‘vote for the best’ competition on the Internet. Turning to other topics, we chatted about the FBI’s battle with Apple regarding iPhone security and the importance of defending security against ill-considered proposals like the Burr-Feinstein anti-encryption bill.

We’re thrilled to have Marc Maron’s support. (Marc has been a long-time supporter of EFF, laying down the guitar solo on Yacht’s EFF fundraising track Party at the NSA.) Help us continue our fight against patent trolls and donate today!

Photo Credit: Sarah Meyer CC BY 3.0 US