Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 92 Actor Company, as its name suggests
"Hello, are you Jason White from Actor Software Company who came to 'contact' me?" A male student with a thin laugh stretched out his hand to Jason. "I'm Gary Goode from the Women's Equality Association at Stanford University, majoring in social work."
Seeing Jason staring at him blankly, with no intention of shaking hands, Gary explained, "Just kidding, that word is a pun."
"I know it's a double entendre. When you extended your hand, I hoped in my heart that I wasn't the one who came to meet you. I thought it would be a girl." Jason White said disgustedly to the man who came up to joke with him:
"If a girl tells me a butt joke, I'll say she's straightforward, open-minded, and a new female leader, but if you're a man, I'll say, stay away from me, you faggot!"
Gary laughed disapprovingly and led Jason towards the office space of the training company they provided. "I'm not gay, Jason. I'm just trying to make you understand that although we pursue equality for women, most of the time our members can afford to make all kinds of jokes and are not always angry."
"If a girl stood in front of me and said what you said, I would happily cover my mouth. But now I cover my mouth because I don't want to vomit out of disgust. A joke between men? Are you sure you haven't stayed in this association for too long and have some inner changes? Go see a psychiatrist." Jason followed Gary and approached the four mobile homes that looked more than a dozen years older than his grandmother:
"Where did you find these relics from the lost Atlantis? I saw traces of various ancient languages on the walls."
"That's a urine stain, Jason White," Gary reminded from the side.
Jason fired back: "That's sarcasm, Gary Goode."
Stanford University has a serious shortage of dormitories, but it also stipulates that freshmen must live in school apartments and are not allowed to rent houses outside, ensuring that students can reach classrooms and libraries within ten minutes.
So freshmen enjoy the best apartment dormitories in the core area, while some older students who cannot get normal apartments, if they do not consider moving out to live on their own, will live in a standard mobile house of 3.8 meters x 18.3 meters located in the core area of the campus. Although it has a toilet, water, sewage, and electricity, to be frank, this thing is just an RV compartment, and no one wants to be a camper at Stanford University for a few years.
"Nine mobile dormitories were scrapped this year, and our association bought four of them. We originally wanted to use them as storage rooms, but now we have just converted them into training classrooms." Gary Goode opened the door of one of the dormitories, then immediately stepped aside and said to Jason, "You can go in and take a look to see if there is enough space to accommodate fifty computers."
Jason shook his head decisively. "The purpose of my coming here is, first, to inspect the venue. The venue is provided by you, and the computers are provided by us, right? So you are responsible for the sanitation, and we will not pay for the sanitation and cleaning fees. I will not go in until the sanitation work is completed. The second thing is that eight girls who are 1.7 meters tall, blonde, preferably with sea blue eyes, like to wear skirts, and have some experience in computers. Of course, it doesn't matter if they don't have it. The main thing is to give me the girls who meet the first few conditions. I will train them, and then they will train those women who are eager to find jobs."
Gary asked in surprise, "When Renee talked about this, she only said that she hoped someone in the promotion association would be willing to use their spare time to serve as a training teacher, but she didn't mention those... appearance restrictions."
"I joined it myself. You are the largest women's campus organization at Stanford. Come on, these are just conditions that are easy to meet." Jason asked Gary seriously.
Gary shrugged. "Currently, 63% of the members of the promotion association are people of color. Do you expect to find eight pure white beauties in such an organization? If she is that kind of beauty, countless men will line up to pursue her. What equality does she need to pursue? The only one who meets your requirements is Renee Moore, Tommy's girlfriend."
"OK, I'll relax the conditions. Women, brown or white, gentle, cheerful and pretty. I don't discriminate against black people, I just... can't see black women recently. Oh, and these women can't have the word Marcus in their names. Thank you." Jason said a little disappointedly after listening to Gary's words, and then cursed in a low voice:
"I should have known Tommy Hawke was lying to me!"
Ted drove a golf cart from a distance and shouted loudly without waiting to stop the car: "Jason, where is that bastard Tommy?"
"He took his chinchilla girlfriend for a ride and then tricked me into coming here to clean up his mess!" Jason cursed in dissatisfaction.
"Find him." Ted walked over and looked at Jason. "SSD's legal advisory firm received a letter from a lawyer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, saying that your Actor company's software infringed Lotus' computer software copyright."
…
When Tommy came back, Eric, Ted, Charles, Jason and others were already waiting in the coffee shop closest to the fraternity house, and SSD's legal advisor was also present.
The reason for choosing this place instead of the fraternity house is mainly because a girl named Holly Keener will be coming over later, and it is not a party invitation. No one can enter and leave the fraternity house at will.
Actor Computer Software Company was a software company registered by Tommy after he received 50,000 yuan in support from the Entrepreneurship Center. Tommy holds 70% of the shares, while Jason and Holly each hold 15%.
"Don't worry, Tommy." Seeing Tommy coming in, the fraternity president Charles stood up and walked over, patted him on the shoulder, and said in a relaxed tone: "I have told the law firm that the next major task is to help you get through this. I will pay for the expenses. Just let the opponent come. The law firm we hire at a high price every year is not a good-for-nothing."
Tommy said gratefully, "Thank you, Charles. I will pay SSD back as soon as I make money."
SSD has its own cooperative law firm. When Tom Prosk or other members just started their business, in order to save costs, they temporarily entrusted the legal work to SSD's cooperative law firm. The same is true for Tommy's company, but usually the most they deal with are consulting issues such as contract terms. This is the first time in the past two years that Tommy has encountered the trouble of receiving a lawyer's letter.
Moreover, its opponent was Lotus, a well-known company in the software industry. It had only been established for a year and a half, but it had dominated the software industry with Lotus 1-2-3. Whether it was Microsoft's Multiplan, Wicresoft's CalcStar, or VisiCalc, which single-handedly increased the sales of Apple computers, they were all defeated by it. In January 1983, the software was officially launched, and 300,000 sets were sold in six months. This number may not seem amazing, but when multiplied by its unit price of US$495, it becomes very scary. It means that this company has achieved sales of nearly US$150 million in half a year with just one software.
"Tommy's software hasn't been released yet, so how did Lotus know about SSD-2?" Eric asked after Tommy sat down. "Isn't it strange? It hasn't even been given an official name yet."
"If we don't commercialize, can we save a lot of trouble? We can just tell them that we don't have any sales, we just entertain ourselves and are happy to help others." Jason White looked at a few people and gave his own ideas: "Otherwise... you know that big companies are very troublesome. I mean they have money to keep asking lawyers to cause trouble. If we spend all the startup funds or SSD's lawyer consultation fees, we will have to close down. So we can make money by offering free software but charging for training."
"Office Smart Suite, abbreviated as OSS, the first S stands for Stanford, and the second S stands for SSD." Tommy sat down and drank his coffee in silence. After hearing Eric's words, he looked at him and smiled and said, "What do you think?"
"Eric, it's not important to worry about how the other party knew about it. What we need to consider is how to face it. At the same time, Tommy, I remind you that now is not the time to pay tribute. The other party asked you to stop development and hand over all relevant codes and data. You have to tell us your ideas so that everyone and lawyers can help you." Seeing that Tommy was not nervous, Charles got the topic back on track and handed the lawyer's letter in his hand to Tommy.
Charles has presided over countless meetings and is very good at redirecting the issue when his brothers go off topic. His words also made everyone present look at Tommy Hawke and nod repeatedly.
Those who are sitting here today are all brothers in the small circle of SSD Eric, the recruitment chairman. The so-called small circle means that within SSD, there are also some small groups divided according to different hobbies and interests. Some people like sports activities, some like business activities, and some like social activities. Because of the same hobbies, they have more opportunities to meet than other brothers and have closer relationships.
Tommy didn't even look at the lawyer's letter, but lit a cigarette. Anyway, the part-time worker in the cafe was a brother of SSD, and if he was complained about, his salary would be deducted. He had already seen the part-time brother giving him a middle finger to show his concern:
"I did plagiarize it, but the code has been modified. The other party is still so excited and confident of winning. It must be because they were misled in some way. Isn't Eric curious about how Lotus knew about this software?"
"So?" Charles' eyes lit up.
"I asked Holly to leak it to them on purpose." Tommy exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at everyone:
"Our software is about to be launched, but we don't have the money to buy expensive advertising space in those computer magazines. What should we do? We will find the most powerful one to fight, pretend to be weak and innocent, and trick some reporters into interviewing us. If the other party accepts the challenge... then we will let those nerds from Harvard and MIT know that Actor is not focused on software innovation at all, but just like its name, it concentrates on performing every scene well."
