20 Sep
2000
20 Sep
'00
11:55 a.m.
On Tue, 19 Sep 2000 tim.mann(a)compaq.com wrote:
It's more the point is that Gates and Co. used U.S. government and Harvard
University computers to develop their BASIC. If Harvard had done what it
was well within its rights to do and claimed ownership of the code or placed
it in the public domain, rather than just giving Gates the boot, the computing
world might be a somewhat different place.
Gates's entire career has been about theft. Seeing him complain about
someone stealing from him... The hipocracy is downright funny.
The tone of that article really annoys me. The
idea seems to be to blur
the distinction between sharing your own work (obviously laudable) and
sharing someone else's work without their permission (obviously unethical,
and folks generally knew that even in 1975). It also tries to oversimplify
Wasn't there also an issue about Bill Gates & Friends having acquired
that code they based it on unethically as well? I seem to recall
having read something about that numerous places over a decade ago, or
has that little bit of history been rewritten?
Ok, did I spoil
the surprise for anyone about what's in store for the citizens of the
U.S. if Al Gore is successfully maneuvered into office by the mass
media and pharmaceutical manufacturers, etc.?
Can we cut the political fearmongering? Do you really think Mr "I got
no-cost oil leases in the middle-east cause my Daddy kicked Iraq's ass" is
that much different? Who do you think is paying W.'s bills? Honest citizens?
Eric