geekhack

geekhack Community => Input Devices => Topic started by: Rajagra on Thu, 01 April 2010, 07:22:11

Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: Rajagra on Thu, 01 April 2010, 07:22:11
You may have read in this thread (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=5963) about the "Mother of All Demos (http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html)" 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!...


















Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: hyperlinked on Thu, 01 April 2010, 07:46:52
Noooo! Don't send Gort!
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: Rajagra on Thu, 01 April 2010, 13:21:40
Quote from: ripster;168626
I know the magic words so I'm not worried.

Pssst.  It's "Klaatu barada nikto"!

Are you sure about that?
Are you absolutely sure?
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: kode on Thu, 01 April 2010, 14:56:15
If so, I'll just peruse the pointer device invention described in this patent (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=4,717,928&OS=4,717,928&RS=4,717,928) by Håkan Lans.
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 01 April 2010, 17:30:03
This is an April Fools joke. Right?
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: ch_123 on Thu, 01 April 2010, 17:31:50
No, it's fo' real.
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: EverythingIBM on Thu, 01 April 2010, 21:26:13
That's really going to be difficult: especially for the people like me who still use outdated operating systems like Windows 98, and don't have computers connected to the internet. Plus, there's so many different mouse technologies.

And... there's always the trackpoint. IBM never did things like that because then no one would use them! That's why IBM's BIOS is cloned; they gave it openly to the world. Same with IBM's RAM, hard drives, IBM-PC clones etc.

If IBM decided to want annual fees for use of their technology, everyone would be paying IBM (yep, even mac users haha -- probably even more: POWER-PC).
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: kishy on Thu, 01 April 2010, 21:38:16
*sigh*
Title: My work here is done.
Post by: Rajagra on Thu, 01 April 2010, 23:10:46
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: ch_123 on Sat, 03 April 2010, 05:27:43
Quote from: kishy;168790
*sigh*


This is where the ignore button comes into play.
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: kishy on Sat, 03 April 2010, 10:37:49
Quote from: ch_123;169185
This is where the ignore button comes into play.


:O but you wouldn't...ignore...me?!? :'(

On a more serious note, I just have to wonder if he actually meant it or not. Sense of humour is not a has.
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: EverythingIBM on Thu, 08 April 2010, 18:22:47
Quote from: kishy;169215
:O but you wouldn't...ignore...me?!? :'(

On a more serious note, I just have to wonder if he actually meant it or not. Sense of humour is not a has.


I like being literal.
Title: You must now pay a yearly licence fee to use any mouse.
Post by: kriminal on Thu, 08 April 2010, 22:21:59
=S