On Wed, 01 Dec 1999, Ed Goertzen wrote:
> I don't know how many readers participated in the birth of the computer
> era, but some may recall the part played by the old Vic 20 and the Commodor
> 64 with it's 1540 disk drive. Many a current geelk executive got their
> start in computers because the software was so readily copiable. Yes, I
> mean piracy. Those who now most passionately insist on copyright and
> patents are the very ones who cut their eye teeth on illegally copied
> software.
Great point. The most blatant example of this "do unto others what you
don't want others to do unto you" philosophy is Bill Gates, who copied
his software "innovations" together from everywhere (*) but who is now
known as the "greatest persecutor" of software "pirates"...
Chris
(*) for a detailed list of his "copy crimes", see
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~fine/column/msinnovate.html
and further links from there.
