Früher war das noch anders...
Ich habe gerade folgendes Zitat in der Wikipedia gefunden:

I was working in the computation lab at IBM´s San Jose development lab. A Calcomp plotter had been attached to an IBM 1401 via the 1407 typewriter console. [The algorithm] was in production use by summer 1962, possibly a month or so earlier. Programs in those days were freely exchanged among corporations so Calcomp (Jim Newland and Calvin Hefte) had copies. When I returned to Stanford in Fall 1962, I put a copy in the Stanford comp center library. (...)

Das waren ja noch paradiesische Zeiten... Und heute verklagt man sich wegen den trivialsten Patenten. *kopfschüttel*