David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)

I don't think they really understood that I was trading pirated software that was both illegal and whatever else was going on.

Even that conversation wasn't present.

I never spoke to anyone growing up in Denmark who had any moral qualms whatsoever about piracy.

It was just completely accepted that you're a kid.

You want a lot of games.

You don't have a lot of money.

What do you do?

You trade.

Some people would occasionally buy a game.

I mean, I once bought a Sega Master System.

And I bought one game because that was what I could afford.

I got Afterburner 2.

I don't know if you've ever played that game.

It's pretty bad implementation on the Sega Master System, but it was like 600 crowners.

And I was making money at that time doing newspaper delivery.

I had to do that for a month to afford one game.

I like video games way too much to wait a month just to get one game.

So piracy was just the way you did it.

And that was how I got into running this bulletin board system, being part of the demo scene, being part of the piracy scene to some extent.

And then also at some point realizing, oh, you can actually also make money on this.