Tuesday, October 31, 2006
An open letter left somewhat unread
"Don't kill the messenger," has been a long used cliche to remind people of the importance and relevance of the message over the person delivering it. "Don't kill the messenger" as a phrase is a comment on how it is almost a natural human reaction to place the deliverer of the message under a certain spot light of unspoken questions. These subconscious questions about the messenger, in effect color our otherwise black and opinions on the message itself.
Enter young Gates circa 1976. Before his 13 consecutive Forbes richest person on earth awards and before his net worth 53 billion dollars. Now in hindsight the reactions to anything Gates has to say concerning software and money will be heard with an ear tuned and colored by his current economic standing, and needless to say, his role in founding, developing and running the ever successful Microsoft company. Nevertheless Gates had in 1976 identified an industry problem that really drew the line between the software developer and the consumer. The problem is one that is still present and even more so than ever drawing a definite line between the yay and nay sayers.
In a vintage article from 1976 Gates takes aim at the growing trend of stealing software for the personal pc (which at the time was more poplularly referred to as the hobbyist computer). In the beginning of the article Gates attempts to gain the sympathy of the reader by disclosing the tedious year or so spent on developing and testing a quality bug free program(Basic) that he and his partners essencially spent over $40,000 dollars to bring to the market. His grip so to speak is outlined much better by Gates himself:
"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.
Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?...Is this fair?
The answer is no Bill, no it's not fair. Although it is almost impossible to not take into account how stupidly wealthy Mr. Gates is lets keep one thing in mind,Don't kill the message on account of the messenger. The message not the massenger is what hold the weight in this article.
I myself am part of the vast majority of misguided youth who had downloaded free music, movies and programs from sight like Limewire, Imesh and the once popular Napster. I never took into the account the effect it would have on business and the personal lives of the programmers. Sadly when we think of who is effected our minds default to corporate fat cats like Gates and forget about that hardworking struggling programmer from Banglador or places like it who really need those royalties to support themselves and a family.
Cry me a river you say? Two tears in a bucket? Well lets examine Gates argument of taking the wind out of the programmers sails:"One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. 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? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists."
This argument can be mirrored in the music industry. How many Music stores have you seen closed down in your area in result of burning friends cds, stealing them off the internet and the growing popularity of the mp3 format. Tower Records, once a music retail Mecca has announced the closing of all stores. Virgin records, a multimedia giant closed a once successful location at the source mall in the tidal ripping effect of ripping/stealing. Will the software industry be next on the chopping block. Not really, in contrast to the music industry software is much more rooted in commerce and day to day life so in the end the power of the industry still remains in the programmers court and the catch 22 is that by stealing software you may be effecting the life of a not so well off up coming programmer. The ripple will reach the fat cats you don't think you are hurting and they as in huge companies like Microsoft will possibly retaliate with less development of "hobby" programs. This in effect will prevent the movement forward in ease of use in programs that, if kept current and on the cutting edge make tasks like doing taxes easlier(turbo tax anyone) A well crypted well protected program may be priced higher because of the fact that if it is needed and not easily ripped people will pay for it, a good example is Profits a commerce solution company that developed software for retail stores.
In all what may be thought to be harmless can really end up hurting an industry which one way or another will effect your job and how you do it, your everyday personal life and maybe even....gasp, your wallet.
Enter young Gates circa 1976. Before his 13 consecutive Forbes richest person on earth awards and before his net worth 53 billion dollars. Now in hindsight the reactions to anything Gates has to say concerning software and money will be heard with an ear tuned and colored by his current economic standing, and needless to say, his role in founding, developing and running the ever successful Microsoft company. Nevertheless Gates had in 1976 identified an industry problem that really drew the line between the software developer and the consumer. The problem is one that is still present and even more so than ever drawing a definite line between the yay and nay sayers.
In a vintage article from 1976 Gates takes aim at the growing trend of stealing software for the personal pc (which at the time was more poplularly referred to as the hobbyist computer). In the beginning of the article Gates attempts to gain the sympathy of the reader by disclosing the tedious year or so spent on developing and testing a quality bug free program(Basic) that he and his partners essencially spent over $40,000 dollars to bring to the market. His grip so to speak is outlined much better by Gates himself:
"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.
Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?...Is this fair?
The answer is no Bill, no it's not fair. Although it is almost impossible to not take into account how stupidly wealthy Mr. Gates is lets keep one thing in mind,Don't kill the message on account of the messenger. The message not the massenger is what hold the weight in this article.
I myself am part of the vast majority of misguided youth who had downloaded free music, movies and programs from sight like Limewire, Imesh and the once popular Napster. I never took into the account the effect it would have on business and the personal lives of the programmers. Sadly when we think of who is effected our minds default to corporate fat cats like Gates and forget about that hardworking struggling programmer from Banglador or places like it who really need those royalties to support themselves and a family.
Cry me a river you say? Two tears in a bucket? Well lets examine Gates argument of taking the wind out of the programmers sails:"One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. 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? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists."
This argument can be mirrored in the music industry. How many Music stores have you seen closed down in your area in result of burning friends cds, stealing them off the internet and the growing popularity of the mp3 format. Tower Records, once a music retail Mecca has announced the closing of all stores. Virgin records, a multimedia giant closed a once successful location at the source mall in the tidal ripping effect of ripping/stealing. Will the software industry be next on the chopping block. Not really, in contrast to the music industry software is much more rooted in commerce and day to day life so in the end the power of the industry still remains in the programmers court and the catch 22 is that by stealing software you may be effecting the life of a not so well off up coming programmer. The ripple will reach the fat cats you don't think you are hurting and they as in huge companies like Microsoft will possibly retaliate with less development of "hobby" programs. This in effect will prevent the movement forward in ease of use in programs that, if kept current and on the cutting edge make tasks like doing taxes easlier(turbo tax anyone) A well crypted well protected program may be priced higher because of the fact that if it is needed and not easily ripped people will pay for it, a good example is Profits a commerce solution company that developed software for retail stores.
In all what may be thought to be harmless can really end up hurting an industry which one way or another will effect your job and how you do it, your everyday personal life and maybe even....gasp, your wallet.
