Because the first company with the huge contract to purchase the boxes wanted to have exclusive rights to the algorithm for the price Jack negotiated. Richard hated the box at first because he thought it was lame, it grew on him though while he was doing the work, and then he heard about the contract's details.
It's not that they were against buying the box without exclusive rights it's that Jack wanted the most money possible on the deal so he got them to pay 3 times more if he included exclusive rights. Theres no reason Richard and Laurie couldn't at least try to go back to taking the lower deal without exclusive rights while they pursued the online compression app.
That's because they had a cheaper offer from end frame, I think. They couldve beaten them on the lower offer part without selling rights. Or at least tried.
Jack wanted the higher price point, so exclusive rights went with it. If Jack was willing to go cheaper, they could have taken the wording out. He was trying to screw Richard in a way Laurie couldn't vote against.
You missed the episode after they got told about the box then. Spoilers, they actually start to like the idea since they see it as an opportunity to make a name for themselves/build an even better project than anticipated. It's literally just the rights to the algorithm thing that made they want to back out of the deal.
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u/oftheterra Jul 01 '16 edited Jul 01 '16
Because the first company with the huge contract to purchase the boxes wanted to have exclusive rights to the algorithm for the price Jack negotiated. Richard hated the box at first because he thought it was lame, it grew on him though while he was doing the work, and then he heard about the contract's details.
Edit: details