American Entertainment 1982

After the First Circuit Court of the United States once again ruled in favor of Lotus, Robert Morley felt more and more anxious. Lotus seemed to be slipping into the abyss step by step without knowing it.

The attention of this lawsuit is getting higher and higher, because all users who use OSS are tied up invisibly, and they are more concerned about the final result of this lawsuit than ordinary people.

Although Jim Manzi left the Lotus company, his lawyer was not completely replaced by the newly appointed Byron Kennedy. Of course, he is no longer the chief lawyer. Byron Kennedy hired White from Skadden Law Firm The shoe lawyer boss, a character who is enough to be Robert's teacher, took over the case. Robert is now only in the name of a team member, responsible for some auxiliary work.

The personable Byron Kennedy appeared outside Robert's office door with brisk steps, gently knocked on the door panel, and asked him affectionately, "Robert, do you have time?"

"Of course." Robert was curious that the other party would come to see him. Since Jim resigned, Lotus has always called him to make contact. It was the first time that the new vice president visited the door in person.

He got up and poured a glass of water for the other party himself, then looked at the man with the iconic nose of the Kennedy family, with doubts in his eyes: "So, Mr. Kennedy, why do you have time to come here? If you have work arrangements, you can do it Get someone else to call me."

"The other party has appealed to the Supreme Court, and the other party's counterclaim has also been transferred to the Supreme Court. What do you think of this issue?" Byron Kennedy sat on the sofa opposite Robert, gently moving his cervical spine, as if chatting , asked Robert.

Robert's face was a little puzzled, and it was useless to ask his own opinion now. The whole world knew that the Lotus company had been bitten to death, but the two founders of the company and the guy from the Kennedy family in front of him couldn't see clearly, Byron -Kennedy is also stepping up his efforts to lobby politicians to help Lotus intervene in the lawsuit as a friend of the court.

"Well, the Supreme Court is now asking both parties and friends of the court who are concerned about this lawsuit to submit papers and answer a few questions before the final pre-trial conference. It seems that Congress is also considering arranging a hearing. Very unfavorable."

These remarks are not alarmist. The judges of the Supreme Court directly raised four questions for both parties and the friends of the court to answer before the pre-trial conference, and reached some consensus agreement on the same views in the pre-trial conference.

The first question is how to treat non-profit infringement and Section 506 of the US Copyright Act of 1976. The second question is whether the software interface is a protected patent or user habit. The third question is to submit to Actor for free Temptation, whether the hundreds of thousands of users who use and learn OSS software are suspected of participating in infringement activities, which will lead to the expansion of the influence of infringement activities and cause more losses to Lotus. The fourth question is the standard definition of computer software patents and copyrights.

The friends of the court on the Lotus side are all politicians or public officials, and they know their answers with their asses, and they do not have any professional reference for the court.

But with Actor losing the lawsuit, in addition to 176 non-profit organizations, there is now an organization called EFF intervening as a friend of the court. At the same time, IBM, Compaq, Microsoft, MicroPort, Software companies such as Baolan all intervened as friends of the court, all of whom are software practitioners. From a professional point of view, judges will of course refer to the answers of these software practitioners.

These friends of the court have made the Supreme Court attach great importance, and even Congress has set up a committee for this case, and is preparing to invite some software companies to attend the hearing as witnesses, listen to them give some doubts about this case, and give professional opinions. Now all involved Everyone realizes that they have come to an important moment, which is the opening of the court.

Except for those two nerds at Lotus who are still rejoicing over their two wins.

What does this mean? It means that the other party has prepared everything. Several major software companies in this industry have already discussed and opened their bloody mouths together to tear up Lotus, which is the number one in the spreadsheet software industry. After killing it, Everyone is sitting down to discuss industry standards.

"This is what I'm going to talk to you about. I asked the company to spend another five million yuan in lobbying and public relations. Do you or Hale \u0026 Dole have any powerful people in this area who can do public relations? I can use this money Part of it will be set aside to pay the lobbying firm you recommend." Byron Kennedy said to Robert.

"Mr. Kennedy, do you really think we have a chance? I don't know what your chief lawyer has promised you, but it seems to me that we have no chance at all. Former vice president Jim Manzi has realized this problem." , That's why I chose to resign." Seeing that this guy still didn't give up and continued to spend money to prepare for public relations, Robert couldn't help lowering his voice and asked the other party:

"Can Lotus use money to buy all those large software companies to support Lotus, let Lotus participate in their games, and choose to abandon Actor? Impossible."

"Jim Manzi is a good bastard, Robert, I think you are a bit like him, but you obviously don't realize how the game is going to be played. Let me tell you. I already knew that Lotus had no chance, but it doesn't matter. I'm the vice president of this company. During this time, I made my friends a fortune. You think I'm going to turn the tide? No, I'm just using Lotus money to maintain my own network, my friends It has been clear for a long time, so the first two lawsuits contributed to Lotus." Seeing Robert reminding himself that he had no chance of winning, Byron Kennedy laughed:

"Losing the lawsuit doesn't conflict with us making money from the lawsuit, right? It's like eventually losing the lawsuit and Lotus will pay you. My friends don't appreciate Lotus, but they all thank me, even after losing the lawsuit , we should continue to let Lotus use money to lobby for legislation. The reason why I keep you in the team is that I think I will become friends with you. Lawyers will become politicians sooner or later. I believe that in ten years, you will also consider it. Be a MP for the people."

Seeing the other party's smile, Robert couldn't help but think of what Jim Manzi said when he said goodbye to himself after he resigned: "Sooner or later, those two nerds will have their wallets emptied and live on the streets."

Comparing Jim with this Mr. Kennedy, Robert feels that Lotus has survived until now because they hired Jim. As soon as Jim left, the entire company immediately changed from a software giant to a fat meat in the industry. Everyone knew that Actor was wrong. Yes, but they will stand on that side and declare that this behavior is wrong after using Actor to kill Lotus. We must legislate and improve it to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Even the vice president of their own is just to bite a piece Just fattening yourself.

"Then what else can I say, I thank you for your trust on behalf of my powerful friends, they will definitely do their best." Robert sighed, dispelling the occasional thoughts of conscience, and said to Byron Kennedy with a smile .

After uploading the last update, I sat in front of the computer until now, and only coded out 2,000 words, and I got stuck to death~ I felt that there was a problem with every word written, but I couldn’t find the problem~ Go to sleep first, so as not to die suddenly~ Wake up Continue to code...