IP: Entrenched interests tried to sue inventor of radio

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 15:49:47 -0500 (EST)
> From: Andy Oram <andyo () oreilly com>
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Entrenched interests tried to sue inventor of radio
>
> http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/953
>
> Entrenched interests tried to sue inventor of radio
>
>    by Andy Oram
>    Dec. 12, 2001
>
>    This date marks a sterling moment in the history of technology: one
>    hundred years ago, on December 12, 1901, Gugliemo Marconi became the
>    first person to pick up radio signals transmitted across an ocean.
>
>    The triumph was quickly followed by one of the most ignominious acts in
>    the history of technology: one of the most powerful firms in
>    communications, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, tried to stop
>    Marconi from developing his innovation by threatening a lawsuit.
>
>    We hear a lot these days of powerful companies with effective
>    monopolies (like local telephone incumbents or copyright holders) using
>    the law to squelch new technologies; it is a theme being debated
>    particularly now with the appearance of Lawrence Lessig's book The
>    Future of Ideas. To recognize what is at stake, it helps to recall
>    earlier bouts in the fight between easy profits and long-term progress.
>
>    The controversy was brought to my attention by an article in today's
>    Boston Globe newspaper; I filled in some details from a children's book
>    (the best source my local library had to offer) called Marconi: Father
>    of Radio, by David Gunston.
>
>    Before December 1901, radio had been used for short hops and even
>    transmissions across the English Channel. But it was Marconi who tried
>    a wildly audacious experiment: cross-Atlantic transmission. He set up
>    one station in South Cornwall, England, and another in Newfoundland
>    (not yet a province of Canada). The infrastructure required was
>    formidable; Marconi had to send up kites to catch the signal, because
>    the weather was too rough for a balloon. No theory predicted that the
>    transmission would work. But on December 12, he sat in Newfoundland and
>    heard the clicks of the letter S sent in Morse Code by his colleagues
>    from England. He had serendipitously come across the band of
>    atmospheric ions that bears the name of Heaviside, the scientist who
>    identified it the following year.
>
>    All rights to telegraph transmission in Newfoundland. however, were
>    legally held by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, which had
>    invested enormous sums to lay cables across the Atlantic. Their threat
>    of a lawsuit drove Marconi out of Newfoundland. He articulately and
>    calmly pointed out the threat of innovation that still scares the cable
>    companies of our day, along with telephone companies, music studios,
>    and a host of other rich corporations: "The cost of laying cables is so
>    large that the companies have to charge a high price for the service.
>    My system will cheapen the cost very greatly."
>
>    Some things are very much the same one hundred years later. But certain
>    key things are different: in Marconi's case, he was championed by
>    governments instead of being crushed by them. In Newfoundland, support
>    by the government did not help his case. But the Canadian government
>    welcomed him and paid for a transmission tower to aid further
>    experiments. There lies another difference between 1901 and 2001:
>    rather than provide havens for experimenters, nations today are
>    "harmonizing" their laws and signing cybercrime treaties that require
>    them to act as each other's prosecutors.
>
>    There's a happy ending, of course: Marconi set up a company (which
>    underwent a number of vicissitudes that are beyond the scope of this
>    weblog) and radio became a key element of modern life. And guess what?
>    Underwater cables are still a critical part of communications
>    infrastructure too. Companies that are willing to adapt can find a path
>    into the future. Let us remember this when we are told to fear what new
>    ideas bring.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Andy Oram  O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.        email: andyo () oreilly com
> Editor     90 Sherman Street                       voice: 617-499-7479
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