Event Horizons BBS was a popular and perhaps the most financially successful
Bulletin Board System (BBS). It was founded in 1983 by Jim Maxey, a self-taught scientist,
who was President and CEO and ran his company out of
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Lake Oswego () is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily in Clackamas County, with small portions extending into neighboring Multnomah and Washington counties. Located about south of Portland and surrounding the Oswego Lake, the town w ...
. By 1993, the BBS was grossing over $3.2 million annually. In 1994, the BBS had 128 phone lines and over 34,000 members, and eighteen employees.
The organization also offered mail-ordered copies of content for those that did not want to download said via modem. Event Horizons in later years ran on the
TBBS system. In 1996, Maxey closed the BBS.
Event Horizons BBS originally offered online forums,
games, and astronomy images
for paying customers to download. Maxey first charged $1/hr which grew over the years to $24/hr. The BBS later offered
softcore adult images and movies which helped to secure its fame as the most profitable BBS. A team of programmers working for the BBS created an interactive, graphical game called ''Voyager III'' that allowed the players to explore space.
In 1992,
Playboy Enterprises
PLBY Group, Inc. is an American global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Hefner as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. to oversee the ''Playboy'' magazine and related assets. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California.
The company is focus ...
sued Event Horizons for copyright infringement. Maxey reportedly paid
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
a half million dollars to settle the case out of court in 1993. The BBS complied with copyright law in the wake of the settlement.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Facebook pagePlayboy LawsuitBBS Days
Bulletin board systems
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Defunct companies based in Oregon
Companies disestablished in 1994
Companies established in 1983
1983 establishments in Oregon
1994 disestablishments in Oregon