America 1982-Chapter 197 - 73: Angels and Demons_3
Tommy closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly, "No, members of the SSD secret council, I need to emphasize this issue. Currently, due to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, SSD’s racist acts haven’t been heavily ostracized. As long as SSD doesn’t propagate it openly, it can continue to exist. But believe me, someday, even if racial discrimination only exists in our internal manuals, it will be condemned and ostracized. Eventually, Stanford University and all universities will be pressured to disallow SSD on campus. That day is bound to come, and what I am prepared to do is to delay that day’s arrival."
"Are you the one who appears hypocritical in front of the camera, jovial and empathetic with black people?" a disdainful voice asked.
Tommy shook his head again, his voice laced with a smile, "That’s far from enough, brother. I am going to go deeper than being jovial and empathetic. I will become a good friend to black people, a member of their community. By making myself one of them, I’ll consider myself a black person."
"You can, of course, but by then you will have absolutely no relationship with SSD, and SSD will disclose all your previous actions to the court, proving that you are a hypocrite because you deceived your brothers and breached your oath. You need to be punished," the voice grew angrier due to Tommy’s words.
Tommy laughed and countered, "May I ask my brothers a question at this moment?"
"You may," a voice said.
With a natural tone, Tommy asked, "Do you think you can still hang black people or other people of color from a cross in public and set them on fire like your ancestors did?"
"That question is meaningless," the other party answered.
Tommy insisted, "Give me a precise answer, yes or no."
"No," after a long silence and a sigh, the other party gave the answer.
At this moment, Tommy slightly lifted his head, using his hearing to direct his face towards the source of the voice, and spoke indifferently, "I can."
...
A committee member then asked, "Mr. Tommy Hawk, Actor Corporation’s OSS software is extremely similar in interface to Lotus Corporation’s Lotus 1-2-3; it even shares the same combination key operations, and OSS’ unauthorized compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3 file formats. Are you aware that all this constitutes wrongful and inappropriate behavior?"
"Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I am aware of some mistakes that Actor Corporation may have made, but definitely not the ones you’re referring to. The great United State America has ’Intellectual Property Law’, ’Copyright Protection Law’, ’Patent Law’, and so on. When developing OSS, I took the initiative to work part-time at the library to consult legal materials. At least I couldn’t find a clear answer in the Stanford University library telling me the development of the OSS software was wrong," Tommy replied with a smile. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
The other party immediately stared into Tommy’s eyes and pressed, "You said Actor Corporation has made some mistakes. Does that mean you are aware that OSS’s copying behavior is wrong?"
"No, copying is wrong, but the question is, who says similarities between OSS and Lotus 1-2-3 will be defined as copying? If a similar interface layout is deemed copying, then I believe yachts around the world could accuse each other of copying because there are only so many shapes of yachts—monohull, catamaran, and trimaran. However, why isn’t there any litigation in the yacht industry based on this issue? Because the supreme court deems the existence of the hull essential for the user’s safety; it’s a public patent. The same applies to software. An interface layout is like the hull; it has no technical content. I could design it into different types of interfaces, or if the law had told me from the beginning that software operating interfaces were protected by patents, then OSS certainly would not have drawn on Lotus 1-2-3, because what guided me to make the interface so similar to Lotus 1-2-3 was the United States law itself. I thought the interface, like the hull, was unprotected, otherwise why couldn’t I find relevant regulations in the law?" Tommy said calmly.
Seeing no further questions from the committee, Van Stan, without giving Tommy any chance to rest, immediately asked, "You just said you could have designed the OSS interface differently, but you still chose to copy, or in your words, reference it. Why? Why not design a new interface? Can we conclude that you imitated Lotus because of its astonishing sales?"
"Yes, Mr. Chairman."
With Tommy’s affirmation, flashbulbs suddenly began to flicker continuously, and the seated members all started murmuring. Van Stan gestured for silence.
"This was not my decision, but the market’s," Tommy continued. "Lotus 1-2-3’s astonishing market share told America what the interface of spreadsheet software should look like, how people should work with spreadsheets on computers. This raises another issue: if another similar software aspires to enter the market, it needs to understand the industry standards, like Actor. Actor Corporation wanted to grasp these standards, but there were none. So, what should one do? Choose the software that best represents the industry, which is Lotus 1-2-3. If I had designed an entirely different operating interface, deviant from industry standards, pardon my frankness, Mr. Chairman, then perhaps my intelligence is not suited for this profession."
