Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
WH Gates III's 1976 letter. (blinkenlights.com)
3 points by socratees on Nov 5, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment


A letter against 'early' piracy.

Most directly, the thing you do is theft

Nail on the head.

Is this fair?... I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up

He was in a 'crying mode'. Ofcourse, today it would really piss off any programmer to see his $1000 worth software being downloaded easily from torrents for free. Hours of thinking go into the development cycle. Even $10 softwares are released on torrents.

The most affected here is the entertainment industry. Music, movies and games. I played the demo of a game called Mount and Blade sometime ago. A really cool and beautiful game made by a Turkish couple. I think its the first game to introduce a hand-to-hand combat mode with close-to-reality moves. Sadly, its free on torrents. :(

If this is the case, then more developers would be forced to opt to develop SAAS stuff. You can't release GMail or Google Search on torrents. Can you? :P

Notice how the letter is signed. General Partner, Micro-Soft




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: