11/11 Smallish Post 5

The Revolution OS video referenced a letter Bill Gates wrote in 1976, titled "An Open Letter to Hobbyists." This letter is a result of the frustration Gates and his coworkers felt after spending a massive amount of money and time on creating software just to have it stolen by hobbyists who would rather trade software than buy it individually. The most powerful statement in the letter is that "One thing you don't do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written." This letter is well written but I do not think it accomplished its goal. Piracy and software stealing is a threat to the industry because, as Gates states, good software will not come if the programmer believes he will get less than a tenth of what he deserves. Though nearly 40 years old, this is still a relevant letter that we have to address to successfully advance technology.