10 Nov
1998
10 Nov
'98
2:57 p.m.
Date sent: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 14:30:31 -0600
Send reply to: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
From: John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Saved Altair 4K BASIC
There's no reason for him to surrender the
copyright; we could
merely ask for permission to redistribute. I think the PR aspect
would be a two-edged sword, though - the open source movement
would have a field day with the notion that Gates finally came
around and now allows free distribution of one of his products,
yet I'm sure Microsoft's PR agency could get some mileage from
his benevolence to the classic computer community.
My experience (and knowledge gained from talking to Bob Cringely) is that
Bill's PR machine is trained from birth to say "No." and "I'm
sorry, but there's
no way in hell you can talk to Bill."
You can try, but I'm pretty sure your requests will go through several layers of
filtering and firewalls and end up in "File 13" without anyone actually reading
it
or bringing it to Chairman Bill's attention. I'm pretty sure that goodwill to the
computer hobbyist is the furthest thing from his mind.
Good luck.
Paul Braun
NerdWare -- The History of the PC and the Nerds who brought it to you.
nerdware(a)laidbak.com
www.laidbak.com/nerdware