What was the title of Bill Gates’s 1976 letter criticizing unauthorized software copying?

Bill Gates’s 1976 letter criticizing unauthorized software copying was titled “An Open Letter to Hobbyists.”

Gates wrote the letter after Microsoft’s Altair BASIC was copied and distributed among computer hobbyists without payment. He argued that widespread unauthorized copying discouraged programmers from investing time and money in software development. The letter appeared in the February 1976 issue of the Homebrew Computer Club newsletter and was also circulated in computer publications.

The document became an early public statement in the debate over software ownership and copyright. At the time, many hobbyists regarded software sharing as part of the culture of emerging personal computing. Gates’s argument helped make the commercial value of software a visible issue.

The letter is not the same as Microsoft’s later licensing disputes or legal cases. It addressed the copying of Altair BASIC during the company’s earliest period, before Microsoft became a major software corporation. The title is commonly capitalized as “An Open Letter to Hobbyists.”