Tim Berners-Lee Patents The World Wide Web

[Zyobot]

Beginning in 1989, the IoT innovation that would eventually be known as the World Wide Web changed the digital landscape forever. Pioneered by English computer expert Sir Tim Berners-Lee, this information system of URLs and hypertext revolutionized the then-nascent internet, transforming it into the globally interlinked and accessible communications network that it is in 2019. Maybe one of the most notable qualities of the WWW, however, is that its inventor chose not to monopolize it once he cracked the code.

So, what if Berners-Lee were instead a bit greedier and decided to patent it in a different TL?

Thank you in advance,
Zyobot

[Zyobot]

There's actually a rather old Techdirt article that explores the possible consequences of this very premise. What do the rest of us think?

[lordroel]

Jun 2, 2019 19:49:59 GMT Zyobot said:

There's actually a rather old Techdirt article that explores the possible consequences of this very premise. What do the rest of us think?

Wonder how rich he would be, something like Bill Gates rich.

[Deleted]

Jun 1, 2019 18:42:02 GMT Zyobot said:

So, what if Berners-Lee were instead a bit greedier and decided to patent it in a different TL?

Format wars.

Jun 3, 2019 3:42:01 GMT lordroel said:

Wonder how rich he would be, something like Bill Gates rich.

A bigger company (Sun, Microsoft) would have brought out competing systems that only worked on their hardware/software platforms.

TBL would have to stick with being a academic.

[Zyobot]

Jun 3, 2019 13:22:40 GMT @vonhitchofen said:

Jun 1, 2019 18:42:02 GMT Zyobot said:

So, what if Berners-Lee were instead a bit greedier and decided to patent it in a different TL?

Format wars.

Jun 3, 2019 3:42:01 GMT lordroel said:

Wonder how rich he would be, something like Bill Gates rich.

A bigger company (Sun, Microsoft) would have brought out competing systems that only worked on their hardware/software platforms.

TBL would have to stick with being a academic.

Do you think these "format wars" would potentially lead to more innovation, or maybe muddy up the nascent interwebs to the point where there's much less?

[Deleted]

Jun 3, 2019 16:33:46 GMT Zyobot said:

Do you think these "format wars" would potentially lead to more innovation, or maybe muddy up the nascent interwebs to the point where there's much less

Things like Yahoo/Google/Facebook/Wikipedia/Twitter/Myspace/Youtube/Youporn would be difficult with no unified HTML, you'd need a separate browser for each application.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_platform

It would make an controlled, censored internet in China/Russia/Iran/wherever much more easy