That’s right. I’m behind the pack on this one, but it was a decent story to bring to the table anyway. Bill Gates called people in favor of reforming copyright laws “communists,” or more precisely,
“No, I’d say that of the world’s economies, there’s more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don’t think that those incentives should exist,”
In an interview with News.com back in early January. Well. Hooty-hoo to you too, Mr. I’m-so-rich-if-it’s-not-public-domain-I’ll-just-buy-it-if-I-want-it. Not all of us can afford to just pay the royalties for the footage from the Civil Rights Documentary Eyes on the Prize if we want to learn about the historical struggle for civil rights independant of race in the United States. Regardless, I’m not the only one who’s take a little bit of offense to Bill Gates’ commentary, and there was a flurry of merchandise and t-shirts embodying the new “communist” lifestyle. One thing is for sure though-while Bill is up there buying all the houses on his block so he doesn’t have to hear a neighbor cutting his lawn or a dog barking, the rest of us have the real world to deal with, and it goes to show how out of touch the software mogul really is with the rest of the world.
[ http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66209,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html ]