America 1982

"How did your people copy those functions? Jonathan." Jim knocked on the glass door of Chief Technology Officer Jonathan's office and asked while holding a cup of coffee.

Jonathan sighed, took his hands away from the keyboard, put his head behind his head, and said in a helpless tone: "Jim, I don't think we can do that. We have to create, not plagiarize, which is what you keep urging us to do now. , was a behavior that you hated deeply before, remember? You hated the studios that copied us and destroyed them one by one, but why do you want us to do the same thing now?"

"Of course it's different. Those small companies plagiarized us. Legally speaking, we are protected by computer copyright. Of course we have to deal with them." Jim walked into Jonathan's office, sat opposite him, drank coffee and said:

"But the situation at this time is that, legally speaking, the other party's menus, commands, and hierarchies are not protected by computer copyright, so we can directly take them over and use them in our software."

"So, Jim, what is the legal definition of protected and unprotected?" Jonathan looked at his vice president in charge of business transactions and asked.

Jim shrugged: "We have more money, and the other party is poor. Whether it is the computer copyright law or the U.S. Constitution or any other American law, the party with more money protects the party with more money. That is the definition."

"Thank you for telling me candidly, a brand new definition of legal protection." Jonathan said with a speechless wry smile.

Jim said seriously: "You're welcome. The world is like this. The weak eat the strong, and it's the same in shopping malls. It's this evolutionary method that makes the strong stronger, so we take away their creativity. It's natural. If they dare to complain, we can do it like the big ones." Like an elephant, gently lift your foot and crush that damn ant."

"No technical engineer with a dream is willing to directly copy other people's ideas, Jim. We will find other ways to achieve the same function, but it may take a little time..." Jonathan took a deep breath, and then opened his mouth to reject Jim's proposal.

Although Jim has joined the company for five months, he is still not used to dealing with people like Jim. This kind of person is the kind of nerdy bastard who joined the social fraternity in college and picked up girls all day long and liked to bully him in high school. He and Jim were two different people. Every time Mickey and I talked to him about the company's development and dreams, the guy looked like he was ready to laugh out loud at any time.

Jonathan didn't understand what was so funny. How could a person who didn't understand computer technology have the right to laugh at software engineers like them who developed software to change the world when they talked about their dreams.

And I don’t know if this guy was influenced by the Soviets when he visited the Soviet Union before. He spoke vulgarly and often used swear words. Many employees were humiliated by his words.

"Time is time, Jonathan. I have preliminary understanding that there are no plans to put that software on the market for the time being, at least not at a normal level, so take advantage of now and launch an update as soon as possible, install all the functions you find convenient, and seize more market, accumulate higher sales figures, obtain higher valuations, earn more money, and ensure that the software will not have any influence if it is launched after us. This is what you, as a chief technology officer, should consider question." Jim put down the coffee cup, looked at Jonathan with hot eyes, and interrupted Jonathan:

"If it's just Lotus that does this kind of thing and it makes you feel embarrassed, give me a copy of that software and I'll send it to MicroPort so that we copy the spreadsheet function and they copy the electronic document function, doesn't it sound like that? Reduce the shame in your heart by half?”

Jonathan lowered his head and was silent for more than ten seconds before speaking: "Actually, I still can't believe that I am already worth tens of millions. All of this is full of unreality. It always feels like it is just a dream. Maybe I wake up one time , as soon as I opened my eyes, I found myself back in the garage two years ago. It was just Mickey and I, typing code happily and painfully that summer."

"I'll solve the garage problem. I'll buy it for you and Mickey and give it to you as a Christmas gift so that you can go back and reminisce occasionally. But you also have to satisfy me on the functional issues and implement more efficient functions to seize the market. ." Jim looked at Jonathan: "That's it, tell me you can solve this problem as soon as possible?"

Jonathan nodded speechlessly: "I'll try my best."

"It's not about trying your best. This is what you have to do." After Jim finished speaking, he picked up his coffee cup and stood up, walking toward the door: "Don't let me rush you again, Jonathan."

Jim walked in the corridor and shook his head. It was really painful for him to deal with these founders of technology companies.

In the United States, it is very dangerous to have a bottom line of character despite being worth hundreds of millions. It means that other wealthy people who have no bottom line will sooner or later find an opportunity to swallow him up.

Now Lotus Company has two such strange beings, namely the two founders, and I have to find ways to ensure their safety and prevent them from being swallowed up by those businessmen who find opportunities to digest their wealth and then turn them into Two paupers were pulled out.

"When I first joined Lotus, I was full of remorse for my behavior of bullying those nerds in high school, but now..." Jim swayed towards his office holding a coffee cup, talking to himself as he walked:

"God is fair. I have tortured nerds, so now I am arranged to protect nerds. This is definitely the most painful and desperate punishment for me as a torturer. I don't know if the flight tickets have been booked. I am going to have some fun with California girls. Let’s let off some steam.”

…

Stanford Law School Legal Aid Center.

Stanford Law School is a graduate school, and undergraduates rarely hang out here.

However, the Legal Aid Center here provides services to all Stanford University students. Here you can learn about the legal-related issues you want to clarify. It provides fast and convenient legal consultation services, and it is free.

Sophia O'Connor is a top student at Stanford Law School. She spends her spare time helping Stanford alumni with legal consultations, but her intuition tells her that the golden-haired boy named Tommy Hawke in front of her today seems to have come with bad intentions.

"Miss O'Connor, I would like to consult regarding the copyright law of Title 17 of the United States Code. I asked the legal counsel of my fraternity, but he could not answer me, so I am here." Tommy He said straight to the point to the woman wearing black-rimmed glasses in front of him.

Sophia nodded: "Of course there is no problem, but what I am curious about is that you have consulted a lawyer. Either the lawyer is not good at copyright law, or it is too time-consuming to explain your problem. I hope you will not explain too much." A time consuming situation.”

"Don't worry, it's a very simple question." Tommy said firmly: "Is computer software protected by copyright?"

Sophia said without hesitation: "Of course, of course I'm protected."

"That is, if I plagiarize a piece of software and make it exactly the same as the copied software, the other party will sue me, right?" Tommy continued.

Sophia frowned slightly: "Yes, did you stump the lawyer with this question? I suspect he just simply didn't want to pay attention to you. Remember I reminded you to be concise in your explanation?"

"Okay, to increase the difficulty, I changed the appearance of the software. For example, the one I copied wore a red dress, and my software wore a blue dress. Is it still protected?" Tommy nodded, smiling. asked.

Sophia still answered in the affirmative: "Of course, just because you change the color, the plagiarism behavior of your software will not change."

"The difficulty increases again. Our two softwares are only written in the same C language, but the operations, menus, structural levels, etc. already look different. Is it still considered plagiarism?" Tommy asked Sophia.

"Although the Copyright Law does not yet have computer-related copyright regulations, based on past cases, yes." Sophia paused for a few seconds and gave her own answer.

Tommy became interested: "Refer to past cases, there are no relevant mature computer software copyright regulations, just refer to past cases? To change the question, two cars, one American car was developed first, and one Japanese car was developed later. They are all family cars, and everything else is different. Are you sure the court will rule that Japanese cars copy American cars?"

"...This problem is actually a bit troublesome." Sophia pursed her lips. She needed to come up with more intuitive words to solve this problem, but it was obvious that a few words could not solve this problem.

Tommy continued: "In other words, if American cars developed the forward function first, Japanese cars would no longer be able to design the forward function like American cars? If that were really the case, American car companies would have long ago The car company went to court, so think about it carefully, Miss O'Connor, what is the difference between the two softwares and the two cars so far? Why is it still considered plagiarism?"

"...Okay, this is indeed very difficult. I need to cross-check many relevant legal provisions before I can answer you. If you are not in a hurry, maybe come back next week and I can give you some intuitive advice then?" Sophia He took a gentle breath and gave his answer.

"No, there is one last question. I hope you can give me some ideas next week. That is, just like the forward function of a car, should the function menu hierarchy of a software be regarded as a protected patent of the software or should it be regarded as a protected patent? It is an unprotected method of operation for serving users." After Tommy finished speaking, he stood up, said thank you to Sophia, and prepared to leave.

Sophia saw that the other party was about to leave in a hurry after finishing his question, and subconsciously asked: "So, do you want it to be protected or not?"

"Let's put it this way, ma'am, it doesn't matter to me whether I'm protected or not, I just want to know it, because I want to make sure that I get benefits from whichever side I'm on." Tommy turned to look at her, He walked out of the legal aid center with a smile.

Second update~~Tomorrow’s update may be the same as tonight’s, because I won’t have time to type during the day tomorrow~~ Let me tell you in advance, thank you everyone~