Stuart Kells

International money transfers (forex) are built on a shoddy foundation of risky, ticket-clipping practices by a cabal of mostly US banks. An Australian came up with an idea in the 1990s for a trading platform for all kinds of derivatives and forex transfers which would reduce the risk of systemic collapse. He made a fintech startup called Alice. Powerful US banks later created a clearing house bank which infringed Alice's patents. But rather than pay for a licence to the technology, the cabal took Alice and its creator to court -- all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. SCOTUS ruled (rather erratically) that all software patents are invalid, so Alice lost.

That's the summary. The rest of the book is padded out with hagiography about the Alice creator and all his friends and contacts, including at the lowest point two chapters about a writer's dogs. The interesting bits were the early descriptions of the international finance systems, and the details of the Byzantine US legal system. I didn't come away with the sense that Alice's patents were really so ground-breaking, or even what they were supposed to do. Alice did not change the world.… (altro)

I went to a talk by this author at my local library and enjoyed this so bought signed copies of this book for a friend, my boss and myself. For that reason I was hoping this book would be good. I did enjoy most of it but with some reservations. Some of it was a little highbrow for my taste and read like lists of authors, scholars and libraries. When the author introduced anecdotal stories of libraries, authors and book collectors etc.. I liked it a whole lot more. Overall though a subject I am passionate about so glad to have read this Aussie book.
… (altro)