OT: Bill Gates' piracy confession

Meng Cheah meng-D1t3LT1mScs at public.gmane.org
Tue Jun 27 03:59:50 UTC 2006


Freudian slip?

http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/2803

Meng Cheah


 Bill Gates' piracy confession

By Robert L. Mitchell <http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/blog/28> on 
Tue, 06/20/2006 - 12:53pm

If you read way down to the bottom of a Wall Street Journal interview 
with Bill Gates that ran yesterday, you'll discover that the Microsoft 
executive admitted to watching pirated movies on the Internet. The 
confession came as he was talking about content he had viewed on 
YouTube. Here's part of the exchange:

   WSJ: You watch physics lectures and Harlem Globetrotters [on YouTube]?

   Gates: This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.

   WSJ: But those were stolen, correct?

   Gates: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content that the
   owner wasn't paid for. So yes.

The Internet's biggest social failure has been that it has served as 
enabling technology for rampant cheating and theft - and the 
rationalization of it. The Internet makes stealing so easy that most 
people don't even think about it.

Bill Gates' comments would appear to be a case in point. You can hear 
the wheels turning as Gates thinks through the reality of his actions 
before finally admitting that he has indeed downloaded and consumed 
copyrighted content.

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