Chronology of Events - 1970s

The following is a chronological listing of significant events in the development of the field of Information Technology law during the 1970s:

1970
June 1970 &mdash;  Xerox opens the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

1971
1971 &mdash; The first wireless local-area network (WLAN) connects seven University of Hawaii computers on four islands via packet-based radio.

1971 &mdash; Project Gutenberg is started by Michael Hart with the purpose of making copyright-free works, including books, electronically available. The first text is the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

'''April 27. 1971''' &mdash; Clements Auto Co. v. Service Bureau Corp., 444 F. 2d 169 (8th Cir. 1971) is decided.

May 18, 1971 &mdash; The Computer Law Group, predecessor to the Computer Law Association, is founded.

November 2, 1971 &mdash; The first formal meeting of the Computer Law Group is held in Washington, D.C.

1972
1972 &mdash; Ray Tomlinson (of Bolt, Baranek & Newman) modifies email program for ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. It quickly becomes a powerful collaboration tool connecting researchers on ARPANET.

November 20, 1972 &mdash; Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. 63, 175 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 673 (1972) is decided by U.S. Supreme Court. The court holds where a method for converting numerical information from one format to another, for use in programming general-purpose digital computer, is merely a mathematical algorithm it does not constitute patentable subject matter.

1973
1973 &mdash; Researchers at Xerox Corp.'s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) creates the Alto computer, which is the first computer to combine all the elements of the modern graphical user interface (“GUI).

1973 &mdash; ARPA study shows email composing 75% of all ARPANET traffic.

January 12, 1973 &mdash;  The Computer Law Group became the Computer Law Association.

May 22, 1973 &mdash;  At Xerox PARC, Bob Metcalfe invents the Ethernet &mdash; the first local-area network (LAN) designed to network hundreds of computers and printers inexpensively. It now dominates the world's LANs. The name "Ethernet" refers to the invention's medium-independent transmission of data packets, and is based on a discredited physical theory of an existing "ether" in space allowing transmission of light rays from the sun to the Earth.

September 1973 &mdash; Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn present basic Internet ideas at INWG in September at Univ of Sussex, Brighton, U.K.

1974
July 10, 1974 &mdash; The United States becomes a party to the 1971 revision of the Universal Copyright Convention, as revised at Paris, France.

1975
February 1975 &mdash;  Bill Gates and Paul Allen license their newly written BASIC to MITS, their first customer. MITS pays a small royalty with a maximum of US$180,000. This is the first computer language program written for a personal computer.

April 1975 &mdash;  Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Micro-Soft (the hyphen is later dropped).

1976
March 1976 &mdash;  Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs finish work on a computer circuit board, that they call the Apple I computer.

April 1, 1976 &mdash; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak incorporate the Apple Computer Company, on April Fool's Day.

October 19, 1976 &mdash; The 1976 Copyright Act is signed by President Ford.

November 1976 &mdash;  The first industry standard for strong encryption &mdash the Data Encryption Standard (DES) &mdash is developed by IBM and approved by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. DES makes it practical to send encrypted information electronically, paving the way for e-commerce and virtual private networks.

1978
1978 &mdash; The first spam e-mail was sent by Gary Thuerk in 1978 an employee at  Digital who was advertising the new DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T on ARPAnet.

1978 &mdash; Ward Christenson and Randy Suess create the first personal computer bulletin board system.

1978 &mdash; Harvard Business School students Dan Bricklin and Robert Frankston develop VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet program, for the Apple II. VisiCalc's power is that it allows non-programmers to use a computer to do real work.

January 1, 1978 &mdash; The principal provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act go into effect.

June 22, 1978 &mdash; Parker v. Flook, 437 U.S. 584 (1978) is decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court holds that where the only novel feature of the invention was the mathematical formula or algorithm, it does not describe patentable subject matter.

1979
October 1979 &mdash;   The U.S. Federal Communications Commission enacts a set of rules for radio frequencies of personal computers as Subpart J of Part 15.