BT's tight-fisted grasp on the patent for hyperlinks could be about to slacken following an intriguing posting on Nerd site, Slashdot

Apparently, on December 9, 1968, Douglas C Engelbart and 17 researchers at the Augmentation Research Center, Stanford Research Institute, in Menlo Park, California presented a 90-minute live public demo in which hypertext was wheeled out for all to see.

The demo also included the first public appearance of the "mouse".

Real Player footage of the demo can be seen here.

To follow the online discussion on Slashdot go here.

Reg cannot verify the authenticity of this footage because we can't be bothered to watch it. However, the fact that it's B&W is good enough for us. ®