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"Most of you steal your software"

lettersofnote.com

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Re: "Most of you steal your software"

#11

Post by dpcan »

rvkennedy wrote: post #5

It's a pity that the then Micro-soft did not have copy protection technology - if they had, they might never have established such a strong foothold in the market, and the history of computing would have been quite different.

Yes, I'd love to hear a response from (2013) Bill Gates to this letter. I wonder if he sees this in a different light now?

Could the piracy of his early programming language been what started the exponential growth/adoption of all Micro-soft software?

If he could, would he go back and release BASIC for free as a springboard to sell other software?

Re: "Most of you steal your software"

#12

Post by [deleted] »

zdw wrote: post #6
rvkennedy wrote: post #5

It's a pity that the then Micro-soft did not have copy protection technology - if they had, they might never have established such a strong foothold in the market, and the history of computing would have been quite different.

Yeah, they look like they've really been hurting for years now... (oh come one people, downvotes? You can't tell the OP is attempting humor, and I'm trying to acknowledge that?)

[deleted]

Re: "Most of you steal your software"

#13

Post by DigitalJack »

saraid216 wrote: post #10
zdw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they look like they've really been hurting for years now... (oh come one people, downvotes? You can't tell the OP is attempting humor, and I'm trying to acknowledge that?)

From HN Guidelines: > Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

Resist quoting from HN Guidelines. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

Re: "Most of you steal your software"

#14

Post by nohorse »

Making money writing software? Absurd! Next you'll be telling me rich guys are finding young startup talent and convincing them to partner up so they can introduce them to even richer guys. You smart people would never fall for such nonsense.

Re: "Most of you steal your software"

#17

Post by undershirt »

dpcan wrote: post #11
rvkennedy wrote: post #5

It's a pity that the then Micro-soft did not have copy protection technology - if they had, they might never have established such a strong foothold in the market, and the history of computing would have been quite different.

Yes, I'd love to hear a response from (2013) Bill Gates to this letter. I wonder if he sees this in a different light now? Could the piracy of his early programming language been what started the exponential growth/adoption of all Micro-soft software? If he could, would he go back and release BASIC for free as a springboard to sell other software?

[He said something similar about China:](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/461490/piracy)

> ...in 1998 during a candid moment in front of an audience at the University of Washington acknowledged the problem with enforcing software copyrights in the developing world:

> Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, though, and as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

Re: "Most of you steal your software"

#18

Post by flomo »

dpcan wrote: post #11
rvkennedy wrote: post #5

It's a pity that the then Micro-soft did not have copy protection technology - if they had, they might never have established such a strong foothold in the market, and the history of computing would have been quite different.

Yes, I'd love to hear a response from (2013) Bill Gates to this letter. I wonder if he sees this in a different light now? Could the piracy of his early programming language been what started the exponential growth/adoption of all Micro-soft software? If he could, would he go back and release BASIC for free as a springboard to sell other software?

Microsoft moved to a business model where they received royalties paid directly from the OEMs. And I suppose, BASIC was a teaser for MS's more advanced developer tools.

Re: "Most of you steal your software"

#19

Post by mct »

Wingman4l7 wrote: post #15

Wikipedia has a pretty extensive article on this famous letter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists

An interesting line from that article, which I hadn't previously seen:

> In early 1976 ads for its Apple I computer, Apple Inc made the claims that "our philosophy is to provide software for our machines free or at minimal cost"[23] and "yes folks, Apple BASIC is Free"[24]

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