I'm glad you appreciate it!
I love this sentence:
Quote:
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Since the libraries were asking only to preserve part of the status quo, one might respond by wondering how the publishers had survived until the present day.
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It's sad that this applies to patents as well, although patents are another issue altogether. The largest software companies : Microsoft, Adobe, Lotus, Sun, Borland etc. all made their fortunes before people started patenting software ideas and algorithms. Now defensive patents are almost necessary, and even then they're insufficient protection from IBM.
Jefferson wrote a letter to a colleague, in which he sympathised with him for being sued by a patent holder. The patent covered a series of square buckets being tied together with string, attached to a wheel and used to draw water from a well. The only difference between the ancient Egyptian method and this one was the fact that the buckets were square and metallic instead of round and leathern!
You might also enjoy Stallman's short story,
The Right to Read. {It really is short compared to this essay.} It's rather chilling!
