[whd23]

Because much of the code he used was contributed by others. When those others reused that code, he wrote a cease a desist letter to them, saying that they stole the code.

Do you just like making stuff up? Altair users were making copies of the paper tape that Micro-Soft and sharing them. Gates, Allen, and Davidoff wrote and original implementation of a unlicensed programming language and offered it for sale.

Gate's Open Letter

[Knitebane]

Altair users were making copies of the paper tape that Micro-Soft and sharing them.

Altair users were making copies of the paper tape because they had contributed code to the group.

Gates then took that code and published it. The Altair users, figuring that since much of that code was theirs, took Bill's code and distributed it. Bill then published his whiny letter.

The Homebrew club had been doing this kind of thing for a long time...sharing code between them. Bill comes along and, with the advice and financial backing of his corporate lawyer father, starts making legal threats.

The history rewriters at Microsoft tend to start their history with the publishing of the compiler and convieniently forget what went on before that.