30 Years of Name-Calling

Wed, 2006-02-08 04:15 — Matthew Davidson

I've just read on Slashdot that it's been thirty years since a certain William Henry Gates III wrote his Open Letter to Hobbyists, saying to his users that "most of you steal your software". I personally have trouble imagining gangs of 1970's computer nerds in black balaclavas jemmying open windows to fill their swags with spools of magnetic tape before disappearing into the night.

Of course Gates was using the word "stealing" as a metaphor for another, wholly unrelated illegal activity: copyright infringement. What I want to know is, why did he stop there? There is a whole world full of sins that you can arbitrarily conflate.

If Gates can chide copyright infringers for stealing, why not stop the next fare-evader you see leaping the barriers at a train station and tell them off for having a bonfire during a total fire ban? If you catch someone crossing the road against the lights, be sure to lecture them on the evils of supplying alcohol to people under the age of eighteen.

If we follow Bill's example, we can all contribute to making the world a little more surreal. And if you choose not to, the rest of us will call you an inside trader. Or a bigamist. Or a drug dealer. Whatever.