A guide to the historic events that happened on this day in technology history; a legal precedent is set for software and the Compaq DeskPro 4000n is launched.
1986 – A Legal Precedent For Software
In the United States, the District Court for the Northern District of California rules in the case of NEC Corp. v Intel Corp that code used to run computers and other electronic devices enjoys the same protections under copyright law as any literary work. This ruling sets a precedent in for technology and computer software developers that code can be made copyrightable under Section 101 of the 1976 Copyright Act. The court also ruled that reverse engineering did not infringe upon the copyright, a practise that still occurs today.
1997 – Compaq Introduce the Deskpro 4000N
In the United States, Compaq introduces the Compaq Deskpro 4000N. The machine is the first Net PC and features a a 1.6GB hard drive, a 166MHz Pentium processor, 32MB RAM, with Windows NT 4.0 operating system. The system retails at $1,149.
Image: hp.com
