Open Letter to Hobbyists
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The Open Letter to Hobbyists was an open letter written by Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, to early personal computer hobbyists, in which Gates expresses dismay at the rampant copyright infringement taking place in the hobbyist community, particularly with regard to his company's software.
The letter, dated February 3, 1976, was published in the Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter (Volume 2, Issue 1), and was written in response to an incident at an earlier club meeting. An unknown person had brought a copy of Microsoft Altair BASIC on paper tape to that meeting. Dan Sokol, a semiconductor-engineering manager, took that tape and made more than seventy copies of it, which were then distributed at the next meeting free of charge.[1]
In the letter, Gates expressed frustration with most computer hobbyists who were using his company's Altair BASIC software without having paid for it. He asserted that such widespread unauthorized copying in effect discourages developers from investing time and money into creating quality software. He cited the perceived unfairness of gaining the benefits of software authors' time, effort, and capital, but then depriving them of the royalties they are entitled to by copyright law.
Some contend the letter became an important milestone for the development and expansion of "proprietary software" in the retail software market. Similarly it is also considered an important milestone in the development of the free software community, precisely because it contends that such a movement should not be possible and could not result in professional-standard software.
[edit] Excerpts
- Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?
- The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour.
- Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?
