Evil isn't really a word I'd use, but Bill has done some pretty damaging stuff. He, Allen, and Verhoeven helped create the patent regime that's now a huge bully tool in the hands of the megacorps. It's hard to put a nice face on Intellectual Ventures, a business whose model only works if independent rediscovery of a patent is common.

He was really nasty on a personal level too. Allen only saved his stake in the company because he happened to walk through the office late one night and heard Bill gloating with someone else about how they were going to screw him out of his shares.

I'm glad Bill has turned into the philanthropic leader he is now, but there was more ugly to his career than just some anticompetitive behavior.