CHAPTER 2 Digital Copyright Basics
It’s not manufacturers trying to rip anybody off or anything like that. There’s nobody getting rich writing software that I know of. There are people who would like to stay in business and earn a salary writing packages for these low-cost computers.
—Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates, then 25 years old, in a 1980 interview with 80 Microcomputing, a computer hobbyist magazine
SOME HISTORY
Back in 1980, Bill Gates was upset. Microsoft was a tiny company serving an infant personal computer market and selling copies of BASIC, a programming language. Most personal computer users were hobbyists who felt free to make copies of Microsoft’s commercial software programs and give them to friends for free. Gates told anyone ...
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