Series Review: "The Billion Dollar Code" (2021).

"History tried to erase" in The Billion Dollar Code. This German television miniseries directed by Robert Thalheim and written by Oliver Ziegenbalg. No one knows this story. In Berlin in the 90s, two friends, Carsten and Juri, create Terra Vision, something that seemed impossible at the time: the precursor to Google Earth. Twenty-five years later, the German computer nerds are facing the global corporation in court.

Developed in 1993 by the German company ART+COM, the 3D mapping software, Terravision, is a networked virtual representation of the earth based on satellite images, aerial shots, altitude data and architectural data collected. The project was realized by Joachim Sauter, Pavel Mayer, Axel Schmidt, Gerd Grueneis, Dirk Luesebrink, Hendrik Tramberend and Steffen Meschkat using Onyx Computers developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. Because Terravision was the first system to provide a seamless web navigation and visualization of the earth in a massively large spatial data environment, Joachim Sauter called it a prequel to Google Earth. It was developed originally as an art project in Berlin, a collective of artists and computer hackers, some from the Chaos Computer Club. In 1994, it was filed as a patent entitled Method and Device for Pictorial Representation of Space-related Data. It was presented, then named it T_Vision, at the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference in Kyoto on twin monitors of a RealityEngine by Silicon Graphics. An image of the earth in space on a five-foot television screen could be spun by a large trackball beside it. T_Vision was shown one month later to the public for the first time at the Interactive Media Festival in the Variety Arts Center, Los Angeles, winning the judge's $5,000 prize. In 1995, then Deutsche Post (now Deutsche Telekom) approached Art+Com searching for high-end applications for its high-speed VBN network. In 2001, Google Earth was released. By 2006, Art+Com emailed Google about Terravision. Google chief technology officer Michael Jones visited to discuss licensing and Michelle Lee, then a Google lawyer, showed interest in the patent. However Art+Com did not accept the offer, and in 2010 reissued its patent, asking Google to get a license under their patent. When this did not occur, Art+Com filed a lawsuit against Google in February 2014 for patent infringement, seeking US$100 million. In May 2016, the jury of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware found, that a Stanford Research Institute (SRI) geographical visualization system known as "SRI TerraVision" was used earlier than Terravision. In October 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed that decision and invalidated Art+Com's patent.

The series stars Mišel Matičević, Mark Waschke, and Björn Freiberg. The performances of Matičević as Juri Müller and Waschke as Carsten Schlüter are award-worthy.

A perfectly poignant and cautionary tale about how the biggest influencers in tech began and continue to operate today. It captures the essence of selfishness and treachery, all under the guise of creating a system geared toward making it easier for people to get around places. And sure enough, in the end, just about everybody gets screwed.

Simon says The Billion Dollar Code receives: