Paul Allen Rips Bill Gates In Autobiography 249
itwbennett writes "Bill Gates was guilty of 'mercenary opportunism' when he schemed with Steve Ballmer to dilute Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's equity in the company while Allen was recovering from Hodgkin's disease, according to Allen. In his upcoming autobiography, 'Idea Man,' which is excerpted in Vanity Fair, Allen paints a portrait of Gates as brilliant, focused, driven ... and ruthless. According to Allen, Gates in the early days twice sought larger equity in the company on the grounds that he 'did more.' Allen says he acquiesced each time, both because he understood his partner's reasoning and to avoid major conflict."
Does it surprise anyone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does it surprise anyone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does it surprise anyone... (Score:5, Insightful)
The two good points are made, can we close the discussion now, before it gets ugly?
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Topic Locked.
(wonder if this will actually work?)
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Because! All $13 Billion is stained with tears.
You cant go to a fancy party with tear stained money!
Re:Does it surprise anyone... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope.
It's just nice to hear it confirmed by somebody with first-hand experience.
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I've got first hand experience: I have been the involuntary user user of Microsoft products over the past 20+ years. Right now Exchange and Sharepoint.
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It's just nice to hear it confirmed by somebody with first-hand experience.
You mean like the rest of us Windows users.
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Yep - He did it to Steve Jobs (Score:2)
Really, does anyone get to where Bill Gates is right now without screwing a couple people in the process?
Legend has it Steve Jobs asked Bill Gates to write GUI software for the Mac. In a nutshell, Bill Gates thought, "Sod that" and stole the idea and subsequently Windows was birthed. Could be the reason why Apple are so anally secretive to this day....
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Re:Yep - He did it to Steve Jobs (Score:5, Informative)
My understanding [bott.org] of the history [mackido.com] goes like this:
The Mac was not an exact copy of the Star. The Xerox Star system however was far from complete. It didn't have drag-and-drop, windows could not overlap, etc. Apple did use the idea of menus, using a mouse as a pointer, etc.
Part of the deal worked out with Xerox was that Apple was shown Smalltalk. However, Xerox built the Star using another own language called Mesa. Even if Apple got the source code and an emulator, it would be useless as the Mac OS was written in assembly.
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The Mac was not an exact copy of the Star. The Xerox Star system however was far from complete. It didn't have drag-and-drop, windows could not overlap, etc.
Hell, on the Star, you used the mouse to select a file, then a little window opened for you to type your command to act on the file ;-) So Apple in fact added a whole lot to the ideas from Xerox, and shipped for a fraction of the price.
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Actually I believe Apple paid Microsoft to co-develop the MAC GUI and the contract specifically forbade Microsoft from developing a GUI for any other platform. Microsoft ignored the clause and a multi-year lawsuit ensued.
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And to continue in that vein, Glenn Beck did the real screwing when he raped and killed a girl.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Their hobby is screwing people. If they couldn't get paid for it, then they would do it for free.
Re:Does it surprise anyone... (Score:5, Funny)
.... or $1 a year.
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Fact: you dont get filthy rich by being the nice guy. you MUST screw others.
I love how the "american dream" is to become rich yet most people dont have the guts to stab each other in the back and climb to the top on a pile of corpses..
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Oh it wasn't just him, I remember a story...
Sorry, but I think you mean "I remember an unsourced rumor"
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Does it surprise anyone...
Not in the least. Gates is a complete douche bag and always has been. He's never shown much smarts when it comes to matters of technology. Period. People have always attributed technological and business prowess where little actually exists. His business position has always been one of luck, usually by the ineptitude of others (cough, IBM) more so than any genius for business. Gate's real ability is in marketing and unethetical, cut-throat behavior. Its always been true. I can't help but look down on any an
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He's never shown much smarts when it comes to matters of technology. Period. People have always attributed technological and business prowess where little actually exists. His business position has always been one of luck, usually by the ineptitude of others (cough, IBM) more so than any genius for business. Gate's real ability is in marketing and unethetical, cut-throat behavior. Its always been true. I can't help but look down on any and all who idolizes Gates.
You talk a lot about IBM, but they only got in the position to work with IBM because of Basic. You should try reading the article (the second link, the Vanity Fair one), which is written by Paul Allen and provides a detailed, early history of his partnership with Bill Gates and the creation of Microsoft. To say that Gates didn't have technical skill is completely ignorant.
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Couldn't of said better.
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Are you trying to claim that being able to write a basic interpreter makes you tech savvy? A little MAYBE, but it is hardly on the scale of what Gates is attributed with. Pretty much anyone with an interest could write a basic interpreter. Not to mention he had help.
Writing a BASIC interpreter is pretty easy.. Writing one that resides in 8KB of memory and is functional on late 70's technology is at least a little hard. I'm not saying Gates is/was a technical genius, but if I was hiring developers in the 70's, he'd probably make the cut.
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I'm fully aware of Microsoft's background, which is why I wrote an informative post, to which you replied.
To say that Gates didn't have technical skill is completely ignorant.
My comment was very much hyperbole but the point remains valid. Gates is extremely low on the tech savvy scale and nothing near the skill what he's constantly attributed. He wrote, with assistance, an extremely low end basic interpreter. That skill level is easily achieved by anyone who achieves a degree in computer science.
Re:Say it ain't so! (Score:4, Interesting)
Steve Ballmer, on the other hand, watches you poop.
Re:Say it ain't so! (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the co-founders has a potentially deadly disease, but is still hard at work for the company, and Gates is trying to figure out how to screw him and his family over if he dies.
Yeah, Gates is not a bad person at all. Paul then mentioned that after this, he kept a close eye on Gates and what was going on, and planned on getting out as soon as he could, albeit with his Billions of dollars . . .
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He was originally VERY opposed to creating the charity and it was his Father and wife who convinced him to do it.
His kids are also not going to inherit much. Both he and his Father are quite active in insisting on high inheritance taxes because they believe the next generation should not inherit much wealth.
Considering how much he has, he really won't notice it at all in his lifestyle if he gave away 3/4 of his wealth.
That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:5, Insightful)
Saying nice things about people never sold anything. If he said nice things about Gates, would the book even be on Slashdot?
If you want your autobiographical book, newspaper, magazine, etc. to sell, you have to be at least a little mean.
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:4, Insightful)
Gates was always ruthless, egotistical, and manipulative in his dealings with others -- possibly even sociopathic. His recent change is just Robber Baron Guilt playing itself out like it always does. No one wants to go down in history the way he was going to go. You've got to distract the public, donchaknow?
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If he truly would be a sociopath, he wouldn't feel guilt.
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:4, Interesting)
Sociopaths are really good at mimicking normal emotions. In this case, it looks like guilt, but it's really just as self-serving as ever.
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Your reasoning fails a basic sniff test; The public at large has nothing like your nerdrage-based antipathy towards Bill Gates.
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You've never know a (clinical) sociopath; they're quite good at faking anything that furthers their wants.
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The public is also incredibly stupid and easily manipulated.
And I will not do a sniff test on that... I've been on the subway, I know what they smell like.
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Actually his reasoning is extremely well founded in medical fact.
The fact is, his philanthropy didn't really start until he got married; or roundabouts. Chances are extremely high, his charitable efforts have everything to do with his wife and his deeply rooted need to appear normal for her. Such behavior is extremely common for sociopaths. And as have several studies shown, the majority of fortune 500 are in fact, run by sociopaths.
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Experiences with sociopaths/narcissists does make one paranoid...
Robber Baron Guilt (Score:4, Interesting)
His recent change is just Robber Baron Guilt playing itself out like it always does.
Robber baron's don't get guilt. Their "charity" is a sneaky form of hubris.
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"Guilt" is what I call it, but it's really a form of egotism, just as you say, They realize their mortality and want to continue to live on through foundations and buildings, changing their image in the process.
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A Fat Cat is a man of large means and no political experience who having reached middle age, and success in business, and finding no further thrill ... of satisfaction in the mere piling up of more millions, develops a yearning for some sort of public honor and is willing to pay for it. The machine has what it seeks, public honor, and he has the money the machine needs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_cat_(term) [wikipedia.org]
Re:Robber Baron Guilt (Score:4, Interesting)
> Their "charity" is a sneaky form of hubris.
I agree on this one but I would say this is something recent.
A good friend of mine is working for some AIDS-related NGO in Africa and she told me that the Gates foundation is using the same nasty methods than made Microsoft what is is today, crushing the "competition" and using their big bucks to do some arm-twisting and whatnot so things are done their way. Knowing that Warren Buffet pledged to give billions to that charity (while refusing to put his own children in his will) is not good news for her.
However some insanely rich people did some good in the past. Think about Rockefeller, who had cut-throat business practices but also gave billions for science and education. The research centers he built and financed were responsible for eliminating a lot of diseases in the south of the USA (such as the ringworm). Also his money was crucial for the development of the University of Chicago. The Rockefeller foundation was created in a way that prevented interference from Rockefeller business and it was managed by consensus, so one single guy could not run the show. It is still active today.
In the case of Rockefeller it was possibly a religious thing; for many baptists it is a virtue and a lifestyle to make a lot of money, to save every cent, and to share a large part of this money with the needy. As for Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, seeing how they gave nothing until very recently, one could wonder if they are not simply trying to buy themselves a good name or a good conscience.
Re:Robber Baron Guilt (Score:4, Insightful)
Knowing that Warren Buffet pledged to give billions to that charity (while refusing to put his own children in his will) is not good news for her..
Thats because Warren Buffet doesn't like the idea of transferring wealth from one generation to the next. Warren Buffet wants his children to be independent from him and make it on their own. Ever hear of those stories where the children of the highly succesful tend to be screw ups? Because they were handed everything and never understood the idea of making it on their own. Additionally, they weren't written out of his will, they just wont receive a large amount of wealth, same thing is happening with Bill Gates children.
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Not to mention a tax write-off.
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When you give $1 to charity, you get a tax benefit of less than $1.
It is probably possible to establish a foundation and then pay yourself to run it (and maybe some other people you like), but even that only avoids taxes on the money that stays inside the foundation.
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Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:4, Insightful)
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Bill Gates didn't merely stick to tricks in books. He could easily write some new books on dirty tricks. He won't, because it'll make him look bad, so others other doing it for him.
I don't think all billionaires used tricks that were quite as dirty as those of Bill Gates. Larry and Sergey seem rather nice, for example. I'm sure there are others.
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Yeah, the two guys who stole their revenue method from someone else seem "nice"
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You can't really steal ideas. They're not property. Doing what someone else used to do only bigger, better, faster, and more accurately, is what many people like to call "progress".
Bill Gates, on the other hand, literally used fraud, deception, and theft to become a billionaire.
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"You can't really steal ideas. They're not property."
Tell the patent system and patent trolls that.
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What did he steal ?
Gates stole intellectual property the same way Microsoft is accusing Android (and Linux) using companies of having "stolen" intellectual property.
His double standard is mind-boggling and it's nice to see it documented by someone who was right there with Gates in the very beginning.
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What have they stole, and from who?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdWords [wikipedia.org]
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:5, Informative)
According to Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Allen's portrayal of Gates "in the book is already making waves within the tight circle of early Microsoft alumni, with several people who know both men privately expressing confusion about Mr. Allen's motivations for criticizing his old business partner and questioning the accuracy of Mr. Allen's interpretation of certain events
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After all, they represent big capital in a very, VERY conservative way, not to mention that Keith Rupert Murdoch is breathing down their necks.
Just an example of why I can relate, so to speak, to Paul Allen:
When BillG announced his intention to "give away" or pledge half of his fortunes to the foundation of his and his wife's name, I thought: how convenient, this is what some ultra rich people are doing to actually protect their fortun
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, yeah, a scandalous book might sell more, but does Paul Allen really need the money?
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Well, yeah, a scandalous book might sell more, but does Paul Allen really need the money?
Just in case he doesn't, I'll be torrenting the PDF ebook scan all night.
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Well, yeah, a scandalous book might sell more, but does Paul Allen really need the money?
You see... if it wouldn't be so scandalous, I bet that Paul Allen would had it published under a CC license.
But... lawyers are expensive, better be safe than sorry.
(GRIN)
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I guess the other conclusion is that he really did just feel like he was robbed... which I'd have a little trouble feeling bad about given his enormous wealth and, let's be honest, Gates' leading role in the acquisition of said bankroll.
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Quite possibly, as a shock factor. This is pretty much as we expected.
Re:That's how you sell Slashdot. (Score:5, Funny)
So when is Taco going to do an autobiography?
"I wanted to be the poll option, but CowboyNeal sought the position, and I acquiesced every time..."
But but he said his stuff was always cheaper (Score:4, Interesting)
Bill Gates always claimed that his stuff was cheaper than everyone elses, and he barely made any money at all. Thats why he has made the Forbes greediest list for such a long time, his priest-like oath to poverty. I heard the story about how Allen would be pale, vomiting, and shivering over a console, while Gates tells Ballmer, that if he doesn't put in a full 60 hours a week, and get the project done on time, he forfeits 80% of his stock. Gates didn't contribute any code, not much for ideas, but he did have the company. Oh, and he had more greed than any of the others. Some also described him as a sonofabitch. But you never heard that from me.
What about DONKEY.BAS? (Score:3)
This is so not true. [wikipedia.org]
Re:What about DONKEY.BAS? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Supposedly he wrote some code for excel. This showed up in a story from a programmer talking about how it was to work inside Microsoft (apparently Gates would verbally rip you a new one if he thought your stuff was poor workmanship, not unlike some claims about Jobs or for that matter the various mailing list quotes from Torvalds). It showed up because the programmer had found and fixed a old bug in the code, and when presenting the finding at a meeting, Gates present, he learned that the piece of code he f
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Bill Gates always claimed that his stuff was cheaper than everyone elses, and he barely made any money at all. Thats why he has made the Forbes greediest list for such a long time, his priest-like oath to poverty. I heard the story about how Allen would be pale, vomiting, and shivering over a console, while Gates tells Ballmer, that if he doesn't put in a full 60 hours a week, and get the project done on time, he forfeits 80% of his stock. Gates didn't contribute any code, not much for ideas, but he did have the company. Oh, and he had more greed than any of the others. Some also described him as a sonofabitch. But you never heard that from me.
Are you describing Bill Gates or Steve Jobs here? Because I heard this same story from the Apple camp also just with different names.
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You are comparing Bill Gates' accomplishments to the science behind splitting the atom, really? Nuclear energy was one of the crowning achievements of the last century, and that it failed to live up to its promise is a tragedy caused by politics, nothing more. In perspective, it is still the safest and cleanest source of energy [nextbigfuture.com] we have, and that doesn't even consider all of the deaths due to wars motivated by oil.
It might surprise you to know that the inventor of those "exploding nuclear reactors" was act
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You are comparing Bill Gates' accomplishments to the science behind splitting the atom, really?
And your point is? I would rank Microsoft over nuclear power as an accomplishment for the 20th century.
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Why? Microsoft has used it's monopoly power to retard innovation in operating system for decades.
The problem with idealizing Microsoft is that you can't see the things that weren't made because of them. I put them firmly in the column of doing more harm than good.
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Do tell, can you name a single contribution Bill Gates has made to science?
As far as I can tell almost everything associated with Microsoft was done by someone else first and often better. The only truly inventive thing to ever come out of Microsoft was BOB and that truly was an abomination.
Bill Gates accomplishments? (Score:2)
He single handedly destroyed a whole industry and replaced it with the Microsoft ecosystem. It's telling that the only real innovation going on now is in markets that MS isn't dominent, search and the mobile sector.
Paul's the Good Guy? (Score:4, Informative)
Is Paul the good guy in this scenario? Nope. Not even close.
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Maybe he's saying these things more out of respect than dislike.
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Sometimes "bad" is a necessary evil to get closer to the truth.
One wonders: in this context, is "getting to the truth" of any consequence?
Paul Allen "rips" Bill Gates? (Score:2, Insightful)
patented! (Score:2)
tiniest violin (Score:2, Insightful)
Yep, you got so screwed that you only became a billionaire instead of the richest person on earth. If only we could all be so fortunate.
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Troll me, as AC I can afford the mod points!
you sure can....that's why you posted AC
Must success be so arduous? (Score:2)
We hear this all the time. Successful business leaders are smart, extremely hard working, driven, greedy sociopaths. These MS guys of course are the most extreme of them all. Seems most tech business is this way.
There's a species of small marsupial in which the males compete so fiercely, even suicidally, for mates that the ones who survive the fights all die anyway after their first mating season. They're burned up from the constant, intense, no holds barred fighting, and the toll of their raging horm
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could it be that all of gates and allen's money is based on the work of two ivory tower academics ?
also, didn't gates not pay his temps health insurance for many years ? sort of detracts from the charity bit, as a pope remarked, when raising hte pay of vatican workers and cutting back on aid to the poor, justice before charity
This is Gates at his best (Score:2)
I mean, being kind-of-an-asshole to Allen was the best thing Gates ever did over his life.
I also have to question portrayal of both Gates and Allen as competent programmers. What is described as their outstanding accomplishments, is something any decent programmer of that time would have to do every day, and most did that without the atrocious design that Microsoft is known for, ever since.
Allen says he understood his partner's reasoning? (Score:2)
I don't see anything in the article saying Allen 'understood' Gates decision to bilk Allen out of his share of Micro-Soft ..
"One evening in late December 1982, I heard Bill and Steve speaking heatedly in Bill’s office .. It was clear that they’d been thinking about this for some time. Unable to stand it any longer, I burst in on them and shouted, “This is unbelievable! It shows your true character, once and for all”
"In January, I met with Bill one final time as a Microsoft executive.
Funny coming from Mr. Patent Troll Himself (Score:2)
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Who could have ever pegged Bill Freaking Gates as a ruthless opportunist? Who exactly thinks this is news?
It's news because of who is saying it.
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Re:He understood? (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder why...
He's clearly still bitter about being pushed out of MS around the time he had the cancer...
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He understood, does not mean he agrees. One can understand the logic of the argument and not agree with the logic.
... going further (and OT as well), even agreeing with the logic doesn't imply acceptance (like in: "make a Sophie's choice")
Re:Oh poor Paul (Score:5, Informative)
He has been involved with philanthropy in the U.S. Pacific Northwest for 20 years, largely through his Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, handing out more than $1 billion in grants and funding for local projects.[1] [reuters.com]
Last year he pledged his remaining wealth (USD13.5B) to charity.
Allen has been a philanthropist since Gates was at the height of his douchebaggery. You ... you're just an ass.
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Paul Allen rode Bill Gates to his riches,
This part is certainly true. But calling Bill Gates the better man? He really was a mercenary opportunist. Have you missed all of the Microsoft-related news of the past 30 years? The picture Paul Allen paints of him doesn't surprise anyone, because it fits perfectly in the picture Bill Gates painted of himself over the years. He's trying to change that picture now, but that doesn't mean that the past suddenly didn't happen.
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Stock Dilution: Remedies? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is there any defense to stock dilution? I think this is a pertinent question, because a good number of /.'ers might be working for startups with stock as part of the package.
Are there standard contracts which prevent this, or should everyone have to hire a lawyer to pound out custom contract$.
If everybody's share is getting diluted at the same time, I guess that might be OK if the value is increasing.
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There is a remedy, it's a lawsuit. See eBay v. Craigslist [huffingtonpost.com]
Put whatever you like in a contract, it's still going to take a court to enforce it.
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Depends, you could be a billionaire in dollars, pounds or euros. And if that's not confusing enough, the word "billion" actually has different meanings in the UK and US. Americans say "billion" when they mean 10^9.
In the U.K., they say "billion" when they mean 10^12.