You may have read in
this thread about the "
Mother of All Demos" which saw the first showing of a mouse to the public.
The presentation was fronted by Douglas C. Engelbart.
It now turns out that a wide range of patents were taken out before that event, including, not surprisingly, the use of mice as control devices for computing equipment.
The Stanford Research Institute has now decided to enforce these patents, and is insisting that every mouse user in the world pays an annual licence fee. It is yet to be decided how the fee is to be collected, but Microsoft and Logitech have already agreed in principle to supporting the move.
All future mouse hardware and driver software will include Digital Rights Management features to ensure the licence is paid annually.
You may be thinking that you can get away without paying the licence fee by stocking up on existing mice that don't include the new hardware protection features. But be warned. Douglas Engelbart is calling in a favour from an old friend to make sure everybody complies with the new scheme. Resistance is futile!...
