APOLOGY: Re: "Piracy" (was: Unauthorized copying

From: chris <cb_at_mythtech.net>
Date: Sat Jan 18 16:54:01 2003

>Interestingly, the "Bill Gates Open Letter to Hobbyists", that is often
>cited as being the origin of the word "piracy" being applied to software,
>turns out to NOT use the word "piracy". It always helps to check
>citations before relying on them. Someday, I'll learn to do so.

I just read the letter... first time I ever have.

I found two things that make me go hummmm:

1: MS Software is probably one of the highest pirated groups of software
out there (no figures to back this up, its a wild assumption based on the
fact that I know lots and lots of people that have various versions of
Windows and/or MS Office, and haven't paid for all the copies they are
running. Compounded by the vast market share, it seems that there is a
good chance they rank at or near the #1 spot). Yet despite this, Mr.
Gates seems to have done pretty well for himself. Actually, I have often
wondered, if MS Software didn't get pirated, and every copy that every
company and person ran was a fully paid for copy, would MS have the
market share they have today.

So it seems to me at least that MS has had a piracy problem from the get
go... and it didn't really hurt them in the least.


2: His parting line in the letter:

 "Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers
and deluge the hobby market with good software ".

I just have to laugh when I read that. Well, he got the deluge part
right. :-)

(Disclaimer: Yes, that is a clear MS bash statement, but it is tongue in
cheek... yes, I personally don't care for MS software over many of the
alternatives... but in the long run, most of their stuff really isn't
THAT bad... its just fun to say it is).

-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Received on Sat Jan 18 2003 - 16:54:01 GMT

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