[SIGCIS-Members] History of intellectual property in computing?

Thu Oct 27 11:09:33 PDT 2016

This may be old news, but there was an effort by Calvin Mooers to control the IP of his “TRAC Language” (always written that way). That would have prevented anyone from modifying it w/o his permission. Prof. Bernie Galler wrote in the CACM [11 (March 1968), pp. 148-149] that it was “ill-advised” to do so, as it would stifle natural growth and evolution of the language. There is a letter in the Mooers papers at CBI from Bill Gates supporting his position. Ted Nelson was a big fan of TRAC language and sung praises for it in his _Computer Lib_, pp. 18-21.

Paul Ceruzzi
ceruzzip at si.edu<mailto:ceruzzip at si.edu>
202-633-2414

From: Members [mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Hansen Hsu
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 1:47 PM
To: McMillan, William W <william.mcmillan at cuaa.edu>
Cc: Sigcis <members at sigcis.org>
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] History of intellectual property in computing?

+1, these are great articles.

I’d like to add that Tom Haigh’s new book, ENIAC in Action, has sections discussing Honeywell vs Sperry Rand, the grandaddy of computing IP cases. (Summary on pp. 265-267)

Also, Tom Misa has a book chapter which I recall argues that making the IP of the transistor widely available was crucial to the spread of the technology. (AT&T was required to do this as a regulated monopoly.)
Misa, Thomas J. 1985. “Military Needs, Commercial Realities, and the Development of the Transistor, 1948-1958.” In Military Enterprise and Technological Change: Perspectives on the American Experience, edited by Merritt Roe Smith. Cambridge  Mass.: MIT Press.

Both are foundational pieces of intellectual property for the computer industry, which would have been greatly restricted without these IP being opened up.

Although neither is a primary source, I’m sure you can find primary sources referenced in the footnotes.

-Hansen

On Oct 27, 2016, at 10:21 AM, Ensmenger, Nathan <nensmeng at indiana.edu<mailto:nensmeng at indiana.edu>> wrote:

Bill —  I will be very interested to follow the responses you receive to your question, which is interesting and complicated and very much still in development within the history of computing literature.

Just a quick response of my own, however.

In the past year the Annals of the History of Computing has published two pieces by Gerardo Con Diaz on intellectual property in software that I believe are going to open up the scholarship on this topic.  They are:

Gerardo Con Diaz, "Embodied Software: Patents and the History of Software Development, 1946-1970", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing vol. 37 no. 3, p. 8-19, July-Sept., 2015
https://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/an/2015/03/man2015030008-abs.html

and

Gerardo Con Diaz, "Contested Ontologies of Software: The Story of Gottschalk v. Benson, 1963-1972", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing vol. 38 no. 1, p. 23-33, Jan.-Mar., 2016
https://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/an/2016/01/man2016010023.html

I also have a running list of IP related literature that I don’t have access to at the moment but will send along.

In the meantime, there is one recent addition to this literature that, although it does not deal specifically with computing, does illustrate the value of incorporating legal history into the study of information technology more generally, and that is

Beauchamp, Christopher. Invented by Law: Alexander Graham Bell and the Patent That Changed America, Harvard University Press, 2015.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368064

-Nathan

---
Nathan Ensmenger
Associate Professor of Informatics
School of Informatics and Computing
Indiana University, Bloomington
homes.soic.indiana.edu/nensmeng/

On Oct 27, 2016, at 10:25 AM, McMillan, William W <william.mcmillan at cuaa.edu<mailto:william.mcmillan at cuaa.edu>> wrote:

Greetings, SIGCIS.

I'm looking for historical sources on the development of intellectual property principles and practices to use in a graduate computer science class.

Of course, there is plenty of information on IP in IT and the history of IP in general, but I would like to find sources that tell a story across the development of computing in particular and relate it to other factors in technology and society.

Also, any syllabus examples or suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks,
Bill

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