freedom in fiction Patents 'The general public often wrongly attributes inspiration. It comes from individuals without any company input. But big companies work hard to imply the reverse is so. A premise is employees as zombies running programs. Big companies lay claim to the mythical smart fountain.'

'Something went very wrong somewhere. What to do? Now megacorps herd the intellectual property parade. Every idea has to belong to some corp, never all of us. A bright man is always suspected of being Prometheus. You must have stolen it from the gods. Not your idea!'

An interesting riff on the stunningly incredulous nature of the public with regards to software writers. (Make sure you make it through both sections, down to the Tuesday entry.) I get to post it here because it briefly mentions patents :-) , but it goes deeper then that. It's worth asking yourself whether you think the way the author is talking about.