I always like January becuase I get a chance to review old forgotten parts of geek history.  One of my favorite pick-me-ups is this open letter by Bill Gates to his user group in 1976 about the unauthorized photocopying of his Altair BASIC paper "tapes".  These are the equivalent of a "modern" piano playing machine, that reads the keys to press from a strip of paper with punch holes in it.  These punch holes create the binary representation of the code, which is interpreted as a machine level language doing nothing more than flipping switches on and off on giant wafers of circuit board.  If you have ever seen these monsters, it's a real laugh (and humbling to see our origins).  Remember:  if everything collapses you will need to know how to build one of these!

From usenet archives (note that it was "Micro-Soft", not
"Microsoft", at the time):

AN OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTS

                                       February 3, 1976

                                       By William Henry Gates III


          An Open Letter to Hobbyists

          To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now
is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself.
Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a
hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the
hobby market?

          Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the
hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair
BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us
have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding
features to BASIC.  Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC.
The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000.

          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 thank 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? One thing you don't do by stealing software is
get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make
money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape
and the overhead make it a break-even operation. 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. Most directly, the thing you do is
theft.

          What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they
making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported
to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad
name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.

          I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up,
or has a suggestion or comment. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE,
#114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more
than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market
with good software.



          Bill Gates

          General Partner, Micro-Soft