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Inventor of Optical Storage Gets Little Reward

Posted by michael on from the happy-birthday-to-linus-torvalds dept.

Thu Anon Coward writes "This poor guy invented optical storage (CDs, DVDs) and never made a dime. Another case of an idea before its time and cheating a man of his due. To quote the article, 'Consumers will spend billions this holiday season on CDs, DVDs and machines to record and play the ubiquitous silver discs. But the inventor of the underlying technology won't make a cent. Today, Russell does consulting from a lab in the basement of his Bellevue home to keep in the game and supplement a modest pension from Battelle.'"

3 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. ahhh The life of an inventor.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Al Gore invented the Internet - I don't think he gets any royalties either? Does Edison's estate get royalties from every light bulb sold? Include this guys paypal account and I'll throw him a dollar.

  2. Re:and if he would have patented it by theREALMcCoy · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This is wisdom. The sad hypocritical truth.

  3. Contradictory /. Concensus.... by kevlar · · Score: 0, Flamebait


    Red Alert! We have a major moral breakdown of the /. Intellectual Property Concensus! It is immoral to have both the ability to own intellectual property AND profit from ones invention!! So what if he invented optical storage! He invented it for the betterment of society, not for his own monetary gain...