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‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

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Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#21

Post by DanielleMolloy »

varelse wrote: post #11

So Google Earth bought a company called keyhole that was formed by the same people that had done the Mars demo (if you saw this in the '90s it was amazing and you could tell the demo alone had a future even if the company crashed) for SGI which then became the basis of that startup which then got acquired by Google. And all of that launched the political career of Brian McClendon, a former SGI manager. Another of its…

According to the lawsuit, McClendon and Michael Jones had access to the code of Terravision: https://artcom.de/news/artcom-sues-google/

Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#23

Post by perl4ever »

rob74 wrote: post #6

Er... it's not entirely clear, but apparently the infringement claim was based on "the ability to zoom from the globe graphic all the way down to a particular neighborhood"?! So something a mildly talented programmer could come up with in (generously estimated) 1-2 days tops? And sure it looks cool, but claiming this animation is original enough to be patentable is stretching it a bit...

"The problem, once solved, will be simple"

(possibly Thomas Edison, who I believed was accused of stealing IP a lot)

Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#25

Post by jandrewrogers »

rob74 wrote: post #6

Er... it's not entirely clear, but apparently the infringement claim was based on "the ability to zoom from the globe graphic all the way down to a particular neighborhood"?! So something a mildly talented programmer could come up with in (generously estimated) 1-2 days tops? And sure it looks cool, but claiming this animation is original enough to be patentable is stretching it a bit...

This was definitely non-trivial at the time. Even now the only way it would take "1-2 days tops" is if you use a naive design that ignores important edge cases and leverages a lot of code and computer science that did not exist then. Geospatial is hard.

Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#26

Post by marianov »

varelse wrote: post #11

So Google Earth bought a company called keyhole that was formed by the same people that had done the Mars demo (if you saw this in the '90s it was amazing and you could tell the demo alone had a future even if the company crashed) for SGI which then became the basis of that startup which then got acquired by Google. And all of that launched the political career of Brian McClendon, a former SGI manager. Another of its…

Google Earth traces back to the Mars demo? That was amazing when I was a kid

Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#27

Post by seabird »

rob74 wrote: post #6

Er... it's not entirely clear, but apparently the infringement claim was based on "the ability to zoom from the globe graphic all the way down to a particular neighborhood"?! So something a mildly talented programmer could come up with in (generously estimated) 1-2 days tops? And sure it looks cool, but claiming this animation is original enough to be patentable is stretching it a bit...

I strongly encourage you to try and achieve this in less than 24 working hours with the hardware and software that was available at that time. Even if you "cheat" and use high-end workstations and ~25 years of new knowledge and hindsight, even a talented programmer would likely struggle with this problem for multiple months.

Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#28

Post by w0mbat »

There were a lot of 3D globe products being created in the 90s.

I was one of the creators of Electronic Arts 3D Atlas which shipped in spring 1994. It sold two million copies on Mac and won many awards.

EA was the publisher but we developed it in London working at a BBC spinoff called MMC and getting the planetary data from UCL. This UCL unit eventually spawned Planetary Visions, a startup we worked with to supply data.

That wasn't even our first 3D zooming spinning satellite globe product. We did a huge touchscreen installation for the Kunst und Ausstellungshalle museum in Bonn, Germany. It was called "Erd Sicht" (Earth View), and in the early 90s had amazing satellite Earth graphics and animations.

Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#29

Post by w0mbat »

w0mbat wrote: post #28

There were a lot of 3D globe products being created in the 90s. I was one of the creators of Electronic Arts 3D Atlas which shipped in spring 1994. It sold two million copies on Mac and won many awards. EA was the publisher but we developed it in London working at a BBC spinoff called MMC and getting the planetary data from UCL. This UCL unit eventually spawned Planetary Visions, a startup we worked with to supply da…

Other products I can think of in that early 90s period included "Small Blue Planet" from Now What Software and "Virtual Museum", a tech demo CD-ROM from Apple that included a real-time rendered globe.

Re: ‘The Billion Dollar Code’: Developers Who Sued Over Google Earth Algorithm

#30

Post by LordOfWolves »

remh wrote: post #17

Started watching the show, it is way too dramatized but still interesting. The actual demo of Terravision is indeed mind blowing if you remember how powerful computers in 1994 were: http://www.joachimsauter.com/img/big693.mp4

This is quite impressive for ‘94, thank you for sharing.

I found it funny - in a “how ridiculous/silly” kind of way - that at 4:40 we get to look inside a building by entering through its windows, but here we are in the 21st century with that exact capability. Individuals providing photos and/or footage of the interior of their commercial space does not seem so silly these days.

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