Pre-1994 Reference to e-Commerce?

pkaral asks: "Does anyone know a reference to ecommerce that predates 1994 (maybe from sci-fi)? I work with a company facing the Bellboy e-Commerce patent claim. It turns out that the patent must be taken seriously, but can be defeated by a pre-1994 description - fiction or not - of an online purchase."

"Requirements:

(1) Description of someone buying/ordering something over a computer network,
(2) buyer gets real-time order confirmation (a salient aspect of the patent), and
(3) the text was published before Dec 17, 1993.

I figure some author, maybe William Gibson, may have written something along these lines. If the Slashdot community knows of a specific reference we could rid the world of this ridiculous patent."

Uhm... Compuserve?

[Magic5Ball]

Circa 1993:
1) toll-free dial-in at 4800 on 7E1 to get local compuserve dial-in number
2) sign up for a new account, pay for using Visa/MC
3) access is granted
4) 'go epic'
5) Register Epic Pinball (and other great titles), billed to credit card, download SFX zip file, message sent to messaging account once transaction is successful.

I'm sure there are other compuserve/prodigy/etc examples that predate this (lexis-nexis comes to mind).

Minitel

[ehikory]

Minitel, a nationwide computer network that supports purchases, was deployed in France in 1980.

Usenet

[PD]

misc.forsale

I bought a hard drive online in 1988. 20 megs. 5.25 full height.

Re:Usenet

[The Mayor]

Did the seller send you a real-time confirmation of the sale? Hmm...I don't think this will count as prior art.

Re:Usenet

[PD]

He sent me an e-mail that said "I got your check! hahahahahahahaha!"

Does that count?

Maybe a lead, maybe not

[SecretAsianMan]

Try The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. It's been a while since I've read it, but I think that it featured a worldwide network where things could be bought.

Prior art in trading

[sigwinch]

Stocks, bonds, and commodities have long been sold using computers, and real-time confirmation is an essential part of the business. Commodities sales in particular constitute an actual purchase of deliverable physical chattels, and are indistinguishable from modern 'e-commerce'. Ditto for bank transactions that involve currency conversion (which unlike a simple transaction constitute a sale of goods at a profit).

Frankly, I wouldn't lift a damn finger until the patent holder sued for willful criminal infringement, then I'd rape the individuals involved (not the companies -- if they are gonna personally be idiots, they have to be personally punished) violently with prior art and fraud counterclaims. But then I tend to have a scorched earth approach...

This one's far too easy to slam-dunk:

[WolfWings]

How about a RPG from 1989?
ShadowRun, first edition.
Every transaction you make in that universe is done with a variant on credit cards that are electronically verified over thier version of the internet, and payment confirmed with the same system, before you can even buy a candy bar.

1981 - Minitel in France

[BigJim.fr]

Electronic commerce on a mass scale exists since 1981 in France. You could (and still can) order train tickets, clothes or whatever else from a dumb terminal plugged into the telephone network. It was connected (for a time based fee) mostly to services through France Telecom's proprietary gateways. France telecom distributed heavily subsidised terminals in order to ensure dominance of the market.

Easy Sabre

[sulli]

As I recall I bought some American Airlines plane tickets on AOL in 1993 via a service they had called Easy Sabre.

ALF Spends Willy's Money online

[RackinFrackin]

There was an episode of Alf that aired October 9, 1989, in which ALF buys stocks and some other things online. The episode was titled "We're in the money". The episode guide is available at http://epguides.com/ALF/guide.shtml.

David

Wargames

[gnudutch]

Not a full fledged purchase, but Broderick and Sheady reserved airline tickets online and got immediate confirmation. 1983.

Earth by David Brin

[acoopersmith]

I don't have a copy handy, and it's been a long time since I read it, but I seem to remember it including descriptions of what was basically e-commerce with micro-payments.

Published in 1990.

Genie, Quantum, Prodigy

[smoon]

I seem to recall all of these (or their predecessors) offering things for sale. I remember, in particular, that one of these late-80's early 90's online services featured an on-line shopping mall. Unfortunately I don't recall which since I never used it. Thought it was too gimmicky.

What about CompuServe? They had a lot of 'features' that would instantly charge your account for access, e.g.: I took an IQ test that cost not just connect time but an actual fee. After choosing the option the test was presented. (unfortunately I didn't score high enough to catch on to the e-commerce boom of the mid-late 90's).

All of these services also allowed you to dial in, enter a credit card, and have (more or less) instant access, which smells a lot like e-commerce. For a while compuserve even sent out a kit with a manual and some other stuff. This back in 1986-1987.

Qube

[ktakki]

From 1977 to 1984, Warner Cable and American Express ran a trial of an interactive cable television system in Columbus, Ohio. Based on a set-top box built by Atari, the system allowed two-way feedback and persistant user preferences.

Relevant to the "real time feedback of purchases" part of the patent in dispute would be Qube's pay-per-view feature.

k.

Viewtron in the early 80s

[smz420]

I used to subscribe to a service called ViewTron in the early 80s, and dialed in over a 300 baud modem.

They had a network connection to the local Ticketron computers, and I bought tickets for Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA tour online using my mom's credit card...no SSL required!

Maybe cdconnection.com

[mmarcos]

From their site: "Welcome. You're connected to CDconnection.com!. ... We have been serving the online community since 1990." I read of people ordering through them via telnet even.