The personal computer revolution initiated in the 1970s. The development of inexpensive personal computers and computer software allowed this revolution to grow significantly at the time. Although the personal computer revolution has its positives, it also had its negatives for software developers, like Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In 1976, Bill Gates wrote “An Open Letter to Hobbyists”, in which Gates expresses his concerns about the copyright infringement of his software. In the letter, Gates explains his frustration with computer hobbyists who were using his Altair BASIC software without paying for it. Gates makes clear that he makes no money when computer hobbyists steal his software. He describes that software copying discourages developers from investing time and money in creating high-quality software that would be beneficial for hobbyists (Gates, “An Open Letter to Hobbyists). “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” was written in 1976 because an interest in personal computers and computer software was growing significantly in the 1970s. Secondly, the development of communities of computer hobbyists, like the Homebrew Computer Club, allowed for software to spread easily which led Bill Gates to write the letter. Finally, there were no legal ramifications for the copying of computer software until 1980 so, therefore, Altair BASIC couldn’t be protected under any copyright laws.
Before the mid-1970s, personal computers existed but were only available to major institutions that could afford them, like universities and the military. It was not until 1975 that personal computers were reasonably cheap and relatively easy to use. The personal computer revolution was jump-started in 1975 when Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, or MITS, released the Altair 8800 which was a $497 build-it-yourself microcomputer. The Altair 8800 was the first widely available personal computer and many were purchased by computer hobbyists. The Altair 8800 had limited capabilities but it allowed for many hobbyists to begin tinkering with a personal computer due to its moderate cost (Chaudhry, 260).
It wasn’t until later in 1975 that Micro-Soft released Altair BASIC which allowed hobbyists to use the Altair 8800 to its full potential. Bill Gates and Paul Allen created a partnership named Micro-Soft and together they spent many hours developing Altair BASIC. The Altair BASIC user manual states, “Before a computer can perform any useful function, it must be told what to do. ALTAIR BASIC is a programming language both easily understood and simple to use. With only a few hours of using BASIC, you will find that you can already write programs with an ease that few other computer languages can duplicate” (MITS, 5). The Altair BASIC user manual explains that Altair BASIC is the key to opening many opportunities when combined with the Altair 8800. Therefore, Altair BASIC was designed to enhance the use of the Altair 8800 and was a simple programming language that anyone, including hobbyists, would be able to learn very easily and quickly.
BASIC being available on a microcomputer was a huge deal because users would be able to do so much more on an Altair 8800, with the addition of Altair BASIC. “There are two keys to the new computer revolution,” stated an unsigned article announcing Altair BASIC in the April 1975 issue of MITS’ Computer Notes newsletter. “One is computers must be inexpensive and the other is computers must be understandable. With the Altair 8800 and Altair BASIC, both of these criteria have been met” (Time). Also in the October 1975 issue of MITS’ Computer Notes, Keith Britton and Robert Mullon wrote an article called “Altair Basic” and said, “The true reason for the success of BASIC was that it suited people. They could quickly and easily learn to use it, and it was powerful enough to do interesting and useful things” (Britton, 14). The development of Altair BASIC made people more interested in computers because Altair BASIC made the personal computer understandable and easy to use. As a result, Altair BASIC became extremely popular because it was simple to use and allowed for many new opportunities when used with the Altair 8800. Thus, Altair BASIC’s popularity sparked the interest of personal computers and computer software and allowed for a significant growth of the personal computer revolution in the 1970s.
Prior to the development of Altair BASIC, computer hobbyists were still tampering with computers and radios. In the mid-1970s, communities of computer hobbyists began joining together and created computer clubs all over the United States. For example, public computer clubs were created in Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, and California. The availability of microcomputer kits like the Altair 8800 caused the hobby computing culture to develop rapidly (Streeter, 64).
One of the most famous hobbyist clubs was the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California which held their first meeting in March 1975. The Homebrew Computer Club was organized by Lee Felsenstein and club members were encouraged to share computer information and technology with one another. Unfortunately, the Altair BASIC computer programming language that Bill Gates wrote was commonly passed around all hobby computer clubs (Streeter, 64).
Once Bill Gates published “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” in response to hobbyists stealing Altair BASIC, the letter appeared in numerous hobby magazines and club newsletters. Bill Gates’s letter sparked a lot of controversy among hobbyist readers; whether they believed that sharing computer software was ethical and whether they believed it should be legal or not. Many hobbyists didn’t want to purchase Altair BASIC themselves because they had personal vendettas against MITS (Driscoll, 1). In the October 1975 issue of MITS’ Computer Notes the president of MITS, Edward Roberts, wrote an article called “Letter from the President” and tried to show hobbyists that MITS actually isn’t making a profit if they purchase Altair BASIC. Roberts declares, “We made a $180,000 royalty commitment to Micro-Soft in order to have BASIC available to our customers. MITS makes essentially no profit on BASIC. Contrary to some opinions, software developments are expensive and the people who do these developments feel that they should be paid for their efforts, I agree” (Roberts, 3). This quote from Roberts shows that MITS doesn’t make a profit from hobbyists purchasing BASIC. Purchasing Altair BASIC will only benefit Micro-Soft, which will lead to future software development. By sharing the Altair BASIC software among hobbyist computer clubs, the hobbyists were hurting Micro-Soft because Bill Gates and Paul Allen weren’t receiving any money and spent a lot of time and money creating the software.
By stealing the Altair BASIC software, hobbyists in computer clubs were hurting the future of software development. In Bill Gates’s “A Second and Final Letter”, he states that, “Two factors that will encourage people to develop software are that the hobbyist market is expanding rapidly and that many commercial applications of microcomputers require the same software that hobbyists need. Unfortunately, some of the companies I have talked to about microcomputer software are reluctant to have it distributes to the hobbyists, some of whom will steal it, when the company is being asked to pay a huge sum to finance the software development” (Gates, “A Second and Final Letter”). Gates explains that the expansion of the hobbyist market is extremely important for the future of software development. But unfortunately, companies are still hesitant to develop new software because hobbyists continue to steal software and spread it among one another in computer clubs. Consequently, the hobbyist market and computer clubs allowed for the spreading of computer software, which caused Bill Gates to write his open letter and also hindered the future of software development.
Also, before 1980 computer programs could be freely copied and pirated without any legal consequences. Bill Gates and Micro-Soft couldn’t legally protect their software from theft even though they knew it was happening and who was stealing it. Gates therefore just wrote “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” reprimanding the hobbyists responsible for his software theft. Gates explains that the software piracy is significantly hurting Micro-Soft and threatens that good software in the future won’t be created due to the likelihood of software piracy.
Gates also lobbied government for increased intellectually property protection during the late 1970s which led to legislation that started to protect software integrity (Yockey). Unfortunately, these legislations were too late for the protection of Altair BASIC in the mid-1970s. For that reason, hobbyists were able to continuously steal and spread Micro-Soft’s Altair BASIC because the software couldn’t be protected by any copyright laws in 1975 when Altair BASIC was released.
In the 1970s, the growth of personal computers and computer software was beneficial for the public and computer hobbyists. Software piracy was very discouraging for Bill Gates and Paul Allen. “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” was written in 1976 because the interest in personal computers and computer software was growing significantly in the 1970s. Secondly, the development of communities of computer hobbyists, like the Homebrew Computer Club, allowed for software to spread easily which led Bill Gates to write the letter. Finally, there were no legal ramifications for the copying of computer software until 1980 so, therefore, Altair BASIC couldn’t be protected. Software piracy began in the 1970’s when there was no copyright protection, yet it still happens today even though there is copyright protection for software. Therefore, it seems that the beliefs for free software still exist today even though software creators spend a great deal of time and money on software development.