Comment on An open letter to hobbyists by Bill Gates (1976)Comments−ds912yWhy was Gates hectoring the hobbyists?1. The hobbyists had a culture of freely sharing code, which Gates was trying to break up (now known as Linux, Github, C)2. Software was about 5 years away from Congress making software definitely copyrightable in the US [1] (there had been some court decisions)1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_copyright
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Why was Gates hectoring the hobbyists?
1. The hobbyists had a culture of freely sharing code, which Gates was trying to break up (now known as Linux, Github, C)
2. Software was about 5 years away from Congress making software definitely copyrightable in the US [1] (there had been some court decisions)
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_copyright