America 1982-Chapter 105 - 21: Actor Corporation, Just Like Its Name
"Hello, are you Jason White from Actor Software Company here to ’interface’ with me?" A male student with a somewhat high-pitched voice laughed as he extended his hand to Jason: "I’m Garry Good from the Stanford University Women’s Equality Advancement Association, majoring in Social Work."
Seeing Jason staring blankly at him with no intention of shaking hands, Garry explained: "Just kidding, that word is a double entendre."
"I know what a double entendre is. That’s why when you reached out your hand, I was hoping inside that I wasn’t here to interface with you. I thought it would be a girl," Jason White said disdainfully to the man who started joking with him right off the bat:
"If a girl made that ’interface’ joke to me, I would call her frank, open, a new female leader, but since you’re a man, I’d say, keep your distance, faggot!"
Garry laughed nonchalantly and led Jason toward their makeshift training facility, "I’m not gay, Jason. I was just trying to make you understand that although we strive for women’s equality, most of the time our members can take a joke and aren’t always in a state of anger."
"If it were a girl standing in front of me, saying what you’ve said, I’d be covering my mouth with happiness. But now, I’m covering my mouth to stop myself from vomiting in disgust," Jason responded as he followed Garry toward four aging mobile homes that looked a good ten years older than his grandmother’s age:
"Where did you find these relics from the lost age of Atlantis? I see various ancient languages still on the walls."
"Those are urine stains, Jason White," Garry reminded him on the side.
Jason retorted: "That’s irony, Garry Good."
Stanford University has a severe shortage of dorms, yet it also mandates that freshmen must live in on-campus apartments and are not allowed to rent outside accommodations, ensuring students can reach all classrooms and the library within ten minutes.
Thus, the freshmen enjoy the best apartments in prime locations, and some upperclassmen who don’t get normal apartments and choose not to live off-campus end up in these 3.8 by 18.3 meter standard mobile homes placed centrally on campus. Despite having a bathroom, plumbing, and electricity, it’s really just a trailer, and nobody wants to spend years living like a camper at Stanford.
"We scrapped nine mobile dorms this year, and our association bought four of them," Garry Good explained as he opened the door to one of the dorms and immediately stepped back, telling Jason: "You can go inside and take a look to see if it’s big enough to fit fifty computers."
Jason decisively shook his head: "The purpose of my visit is, first, to inspect the site. You provide the venue and we provide the computers, right? So cleaning is your responsibility, and we will not pay for cleaning services. I won’t go in until the cleaning is done. Second, give me eight girls, about 1.7 meters tall, blonde, preferably with blue eyes, like to wear skirts, with some experience in computers—though it’s not essential—as long as they meet the earlier criteria. I will train them, and then they will train those women eager for employment."
Garry asked with some surprise: "When Renee talked about this, she only mentioned wanting someone willing to teach in their spare time. She didn’t mention any of those... appearance requirements."
"That’s my own addition. You guys are Stanford’s largest female campus organization, come on, these are very easy criteria to meet," Jason seriously said to Garry.
Garry shrugged: "Currently, 63% of our association’s members are people of color. You hope to find eight pure white beauties in such an organization? If they were that beautiful, countless men would be lining up to pursue them. Why would they need to pursue equality? The only one who fits your description is named Renee Moore, Tommy’s girlfriend."
"OK, let’s relax the requirements a bit, female, either brunette or white, a gentle and cheerful personality, and beautiful. I don’t discriminate against black women; I just can’t... I just can’t see black women right now. Oh, and none of these women’s names can include the word ’Marcus’, thanks," Jason said a bit dejectedly after hearing Garry’s words, then muttered under his breath:
"I should’ve known that damn Tommy Hawk was fooling me!"
Ted drove up in a golf cart from afar, calling out loudly before even stopping: "Jason, where the hell is Tommy that bastard?" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
"Out riding with his Persian cat girlfriend, then tricked me into coming here to wipe his ass!" Jason cursed grumpily.
"Find him," Ted approached and looked at Jason, "SSD’s law firm received a letter from a distant Cambridge, Massachusetts, claiming that your Actor Company’s software is infringing on Lotus Corporation’s computer software copyright."
...
When Tommy hurried back, Eric, Ted, Charles, Jason, and several others were already waiting in the coffee shop closest to the Fraternity house, along with SSD’s legal counsel.
The reason for choosing this place over the Fraternity house was primarily that Holly Kina, a girl, would be coming over soon, and unless it was a party invitation, no one could just come and go from the Fraternity house.
Actor Software Company was the software firm Tommy had set up with the fifty thousand US dollars of support from the entrepreneurship center, holding a seventy percent stake, while Jason and Holly each held fifteen percent.
"Don’t worry, Tommy," said Charles, the president of the Fraternity, who stood up and came over to pat Tommy on the shoulder in as relaxed a tone as possible, "I’ve already told the law firm that their main job now is to help you get through this. I’ll cover the costs. Let the opponents come at us; the expensive law firm we hire every year isn’t just for show."
Tommy looked at him gratefully and said, "Thank you, Charles. I’ll pay SSD back as soon as I make the money."
SSD had its cooperating law firm, and just like when Tom Prosk or other members started their businesses and wanted to save on costs, they would temporarily entrust their legal affairs to SSD’s cooperating law firm. Tommy’s company did the same, but usually it was only for issues like consulting on contract terms. It was the first time in two years that Tommy’s company had encountered the trouble of being sent a legal notice.
Moreover, the opponent was the prestigious Lotus Corporation in the software industry. Founded just a year and a half ago, its Lotus 1-2-3 dominated the industry without any rival, whether it was Microsoft’s Multiplan, MicroPro’s CalcStar or VisiCalc, which by itself boosted Apple computer sales—all were surpassed by it. When the software officially went on sale in January 1983, it sold 300,000 copies in six months. The figure might not seem remarkable at first, but multiplied by its unit price of 495 US dollars, it was terrifying—that meant the company had made nearly 150 million US dollars in sales from just one software program within half a year.
"Tommy’s software hasn’t even been launched yet. How could Lotus know about SSD-2?" Eric spoke first after Tommy also took a seat, "Isn’t it strange? It hasn’t even settled on an official name yet."
"If we don’t commercialize it, can we avoid a lot of trouble? Simply tell them we have no sales, just enjoying ourselves for fun, happy to help others," Jason White suggested to the group, sharing his own thinking, "Otherwise... you know how troublesome those big companies can be. I mean, they have the money to keep their lawyers on our backs, and if we run through the startup fund or SSD’s legal consultation fee, we’d have to shut down. So we could offer the software for free, but charge for training. We’d still make money."
"OfficeSmartSuite, short for OSS. The first ’S’ stands for Stanford, the second ’S’ for SSD," Tommy said, sitting down, silently sipping his coffee. Hearing Eric’s words, he looked at him with a smile, saying, "What do you think?"
"Eric, fretting over how the other side got the information is not important right now. We need to consider how to face it. Meanwhile, Tommy, I remind you that now is not the time for tributes. The other side wants you to stop development and hand over all related code and data. You have to tell us what you’re thinking so that everyone, including the lawyers, can help you," Charles said, noticing Tommy’s calm demeanor, and redirected the conversation, passing the legal notice in his hand to Tommy.
Charles had presided over countless meetings and was very adept at getting issues back on track when the brothers digressed. His words also caused everyone to look toward Tommy Hawk, nodding in agreement.
Everyone sitting here today was part of Eric’s small circle of brothers as the recruitment chair of SSD. These so-called small circles meant that within SSD, smaller groups would form based on different hobbies and interests—some were into sports, some into business, and others into various social activities. Because they shared common interests, they saw each other more often than other brothers, which made their relationships even closer.
Tommy didn’t even glance at the legal notice, but instead lit a cigarette—after all, the café was part-time run by a brother from SSD, and even if there were complaints, it would just come out of his wages. He had already seen the part-time brother giving him the middle finger, a sign of concern:
"I did indeed copy it at one point, but I’ve changed the code since then. If they are still this agitated, it must be because of some kind of misdirection. Eric, aren’t you curious about how Lotus knew about the software?"
"So?" Charles’s eyes lit up.
"I had Holly deliberately leak it to them," Tommy exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at the others:
"The software was about to launch, and we didn’t have the money to buy expensive ad spaces in those computer magazines. What to do? Pick a fight with the toughest one, portray ourselves as the weak and innocent, to lure some reporters for an exclusive interview. If the other side responds... let the nerds at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology understand that Actor Software Company isn’t focused on software innovation at all, like its name suggests, but rather on perfectly acting out every single scene."
