50 years ago, a young Bill Gates took on the 'software pirates'
by MilnerRoute on 2/1/2026, 5:21:50 PM
https://thenewstack.io/50-years-ago-a-young-bill-gates-took-on-the-software-pirates/
Comments
by: asdefghyk
Is not generally well known but Microsoft stole the idea of product activation ( as used in Windows XP and more ) and copied the methodology of the activation parameters etc from the guy that invented and patented it . There was a big court case about it and appeals , it ended with Microsoft having to pay penalty of (I recall ) $250M USD . There is very brief info on this wikipedia page <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_Richardson" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_Richardson</a><p>There is a much more detailed video by Ric RIchardson around I will see if I can find it and post the link .....<p>OK found the link. <a href="https://rss.com/podcasts/unemployable/1485621/" rel="nofollow">https://rss.com/podcasts/unemployable/1485621/</a><p>This link has blurb for another entrepreneur company, just ignore / skip that. There is a part where the inventor gives detailed info about the court battle with Microsoft and technical details of his product activation technology.
2/3/2026, 6:55:39 AM
by: jordanb
And if those pirates had been successful young Billy might not have grown up to be such a naughty boy.
2/3/2026, 5:15:19 AM
by: ThrowawayR2
The person authoring the Post-Open License (discussed in <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38783500">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38783500</a>), a paid shared source license in all but name, is the fellow they chose to interview about Gates' letter? How ... ironic. The reasoning behind POL and the growing number of shared source licenses is exactly the same as Gates' letter: developers deserve to get paid for their efforts instead of having their code shared without compensation. Both are a ringing endorsement of Gates' argument, not <i>libre</i> software and the Four Freedoms.
2/1/2026, 6:31:32 PM
by: King-Aaron
I find it fascinating how this particular sites' users post articles like this while there's so much <i>obscene</i> news about the dude right now.
2/3/2026, 5:36:41 AM
by: kens
Seriously, I consider this to be Microsoft's key innovation: the idea that people should pay for software and that people should be forced to pay for software.
2/3/2026, 6:01:51 AM
by: asdefghyk
Bill Gates was a ruthless and predatory business man. It is well known - Used to build in deliberate incompatibilities with the Windows
2/3/2026, 6:34:58 AM
by: jojobas
Microsoft quickly learned to pick their battles and basically left Windows anti-piracy features at "just about anyone will be able to do it" level, pretty much only going after large dodgy companies. MS benefited enormously from all the piracy in developing countries, around teenage tinkerers and so on.
2/3/2026, 5:55:41 AM
by: snvzz
We are still trying to recover from the damage done.
2/3/2026, 7:57:37 AM
by: renewiltord
And today, half a century later, most HN and Reddit software people are enthusiasts about software licenses. Followers, no doubt, of this philosophy.
2/3/2026, 6:43:57 AM
by: westurner
From what was their victim software derived? How much time did it take to write the letter?<p>Is this the one with Noah Wylie?<p>XEROX Alto (PARC ), 86DOS, CPM DOS, BASIC,<p>Xerox Alto (1973) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto</a><p>The Altair 8800 has an Intel 8080 CPU:<p>Altair 8800: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800</a><p>Intel 8080 -> Intel 8088<p>CP/M (1974) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M</a><p>DOS > History: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS#History" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS#History</a><p>86-DOS: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS</a> :<p>> <i>86-DOS shared a few of its commands with other operating systems such as OS/8 and CP/M, which made it easy to port programs from the latter. Its application programming interface was very similar to that of CP/M. The system was licensed and then purchased by Microsoft and developed further as MS-DOS and PC DOS. [2]</i><p>BASIC > History: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_interpreter#History" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_interpreter#History</a><p>HP had BASIC on mainframes in the 1960s.<p>This paper (ScholarlyArticle) was published in 1974:<p>"A BASIC Language Interpreter for the Intel 8008 Microprocessor". ACM. (19<i>74</i>) from UIUC: University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana .. archive.org: <a href="https://archive.org/details/basiclanguageint658weav/page/n8/mode/1up" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/basiclanguageint658weav/page/n8/...</a> .. scholar: <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C43&q=A+BASIC+Language+Interpreter+for+the+Intel+8008+Microprocessor&btnG=" rel="nofollow">https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C43&q=A+B...</a><p>"What Bill Gates’ first commercial code (Altair BASIC) looks like under the hood" <a href="https://maizure.org/projects/decoded-altair-basic/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://maizure.org/projects/decoded-altair-basic/index.html</a> .. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1o9wk8x/what_bill_gates_first_commercial_code_altair/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1o9wk8x/what_b...</a> :<p>Monte Davidoff: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Davidoff" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Davidoff</a> :<p>> <i>Davidoff was assigned the task of writing floating-point arithmetic routines for Altair BASIC over the summer, when the three of them lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where their company was then headquartered.[1] Gates, Allen, and Davidoff managed to write the software without ever seeing the Altair 8800 thanks to a simulator</i><p>BASIC > History > Microcomputer era: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_interpreter" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_interpreter</a> :<p>> <i>In January 1975, the Altair 8800 was announced and sparked the microcomputer revolution. One of the first microcomputer versions of BASIC was co-written by Gates, Allen, and Monte Davidoff for their newly formed company, Micro-Soft. This was released by MITS in punch tape format for the Altair 8800 shortly after the machine itself, [7] showcasing BASIC as the primary language for early microcomputers.</i><p>> <i>In March 1975, Steve Wozniak attended the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club and began formulating the design of his own computer. Club members were excited by Altair BASIC. [8] Wozniak concluded that his machine would have to have a BASIC of its own. At the time he was working at Hewlett Packard and used their TS-BASIC minicomputer dialect as the basis for his own version. Integer BASIC was released on cassette for the Apple I, and was supplied in ROM when the Apple II shipped in the summer of 1977. [9]</i><p>..Re: FreeBASIC, Q<i>64</i>, EDIT.COM and its new rust clone; where it's at today: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44018152">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44018152</a>
2/1/2026, 6:37:16 PM