Ben Franklin’s Greatest Invention

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 9 Nov., 2005 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[aculeus]

Thanks for the post.

[R. Scott]

You’re welcome. I take little I find on the internet (or on the news shows, or in the newspapers) at face value.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Great USPTO story but that graphic doesn't fit the story....I don't think there is a patent on the Democratic Party....

[Mad Dawgg]

"Very intersting!! If Ben were alive today, one can only imagine what his stock would be going for. The man was amazing."

I wrote a small piece for a local blog about Democracy in it I addressed the issue of old Ben coming back to present day America. The Following is an excerpt:

__________________________________________________________

Dr. Franklin was a genius, for that there is no doubt. He was a great force in the founding of our country and is responsible for many of the things we take for granted today. He had another saying that I doubt many in America would know or recognize. “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”Yes Franklin had it down. Today, more and more money is sent to Washington D.C. in the name of social programs and the cry of the left is we need even more money to get the job done.

I sometimes wish I could go back in time and bring Dr. Franklin into the present so he could address the federal government in a Joint Session of Congress. Oh man, now that would be entertainment!

I can see it all now. All of the major networks and cable news anchors, the New York Times and all the rest of the birdcage liners all gathered together to cover this momentous occasion. A hush would come over the gathered heads of state and the members of our government as the lights dim. A single spotlight would illuminate Dr. Franklin as he put on his famous bifocals and acknowledge the gathered dignitaries:

”Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, the esteemed members of the Supreme Court, distinguished members of the House and the Senate, and the citizens of this great nation I bid you all greetings.”

“I’ve journeyed here today across the expanse time some 216 years ago at the very conclusion of the writing of the Constitution to this present day to put forth a very important question to you all…”

“What in God’s good name do you think you people are doing?!?!?!?!”

[Mad Dawgg]

"But what did Bill Gates invent? I thought he took Steve Jobs' "user-friendly" concept of computer operating systems and ran with it."

Oh you mean that "User-friendly" concept Jobs pirated from Xerox?

[HopefulPatriot]

" Do you think an uneducated mother in a third world country with a dying child has a political ideology?"

No, but I am suggesting that the people who believe they have a right to infringe the drug manufacturers patent so that they can manufacture the drugs and give them away might have a socialistic agenda. Coercing or blackmailing the manufacturer into donating or discounting the drugs is basically no different. It is not the manufacturer with the patent who should bear the burden for the cost of medication for the people who cannot afford it for themselves.

There is plenty of room for charity, but socialized health care or socialized medicines whether by government decree or public coercion is a step toward the dark ages, not the provision of health care to anybody.

[Ohioan]

Thank you for posting this.

[Glenn]

but socialized health care or socialized medicines whether by government decree or public coercion is a step toward the dark ages

Didn't it work exactly that way for Polio and smallpox? I thought that was a rather enlightened approach to stem human suffering in the history of the world.

[Freebird Forever]

and without which artists would be unable to make a living as artists (would Pink Floyd have written, recorded and produced Dark Side of the Moon if they would have only sold a handful of copies that would then be down-loadable for free by everyone?).

I understand the point you intended to make, but Pink Floyd isn't the best example.

To this day, (if they were so inclined), they could perform live and sell out stadiums at $100+ / ticket.

Albums can make you popular, but touring makes you rich.

[supercat]

Google the author. Anyone of any note will have his obituary up on the Net, somewhere.

And after you discover hundreds of John Smiths who died between 1980 and 2030 and many more who are still alive, what then?

[supercat]

The real problem is not determining if something is in the public domain, but finding the rights owner when it is not.

If something can't be proven to be in the public domain, it may as well not be. Unless something is done, the various copyright reforms will mean that a great volume of material will for all practical purposes never enter the public domain even if copies survive long enough to do so.

To be sure, being unable to track down copyright holders is also a problem, but back in the days when notice was required, and when registration was required for renewal, anyone who couldn't track down a copyright holder could wait 28 years from the printed copyright date; if the work wasn't registered by then, it was in the public domain (and thus available for use). By contrast, the problems with today's system mean that a work whose author/owner can't be found will be unusable forever (since without knowing who the author is, there will be no way of knowing when the work lapses into the public domain). If there are no further rule changes, a work published in 1980 could enter the public domain as early as 2051, or could still be under copyright in 2150.

[Congressman Billybob]

I was a child when Dr. Salk solved the problem of a vaccine for polio. I remember getting the shots as a teenager. Later, I served on the Board of the Leukemia Society of America. They sponsored basic research in that disease the same way the March of Dimes did for polio.

The money was raised by private, voluntary donations. Then, a knowledgeable Board, guided by the advice of doctors experienced in the field, that money was spent on the most promising research proposals of the hundreds that were presented for consideration. (Most leukemia patients are now "cured" as opposed to most dying quickly of their disease, when I first went on that Board.)

This was NOT "socialized medicine." It was intelligent, capable private charity, for which America is renowned.

John / Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

Anyone who knows how to use Google, also know how to narrow their searches. LOL.

John / Billybob

[HopefulPatriot]

I will leave it to you to review the the history of the polio and small pox vaccines. I do not know the details or the specifics, but the answer is unequivocally "NO" if you think forcing drug companies to wave their patents or be coerced into providing the medicines at discount is a model for future health care. The Swine flu fiasco was only the first of what could be many such events.

Government is the least efficient, the least effective, and the worst possible way to do anything. Capitalism works; socialism fails every time it is tried and it will always fail every time it is tried because the incentives are backwards.

I have seen military medicine, VA medicine, and British Medicine up close. Do you think it was an accident that Fedex and UPS are not part of the post office?

[Glenn]

This was NOT "socialized medicine."

Is that true of the world effort? Did the donations of America eradicate smallpox and Polio? Were the cures patented? Should cures be patentable?

I'd be interested in a Franklin answer to today's problems, is the point.

[Wolfstar]

I hope y'all will find it interesting.

I sure do. Whenver I think about Franklin and the other founders, I am once again reminded of who the TRUE greatest generation is in American history. Although it helped Brokaw sell a lot of books, I rue the day he or his publishers ever came up with that title for the WWII generation.

Without the founding generation, there would have been no American WWII generation to save Europe in the 1940's.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Yeah, touring can make you rich, but Pink Floyd went through the time and expense of their groundbreaking production and having it sound perfect on the album because the album was an end in itself, not a means to an end. If Pink Floyd knew it would have only sold a handful of albums and would need to make its living from touring, it would have made an album with less production and more of a "live" sound.

[Congressman Billybob]

My understanding is that Dr. Salk did not attempt to patent the vaccine that he developed for polio. I know that the researchers who worked on leukemia research did not attempt to patent the cures that they developed for that dread disease.

Like I said, these were examples of tremendously successful American charity. Why, exactly, do you insist on pushing these examples, wrongfully, into the the category of socialized medicine? Do you have an agenda? I don't.

John / Billybob

[Glenn]

Why, exactly, do you insist on pushing these examples, wrongfully, into the the category of socialized medicine? Do you have an agenda?

Yes. I have an agenda. I have trouble letting a million people die because of patents.

At some future point, there may be an Iranian cure for some virus that is killing millions of Americans. Suppose their price was 1/2 trillion dollars and all of Montana for licensing rights. Would we pay it? Would we respect their patent?

Some replies to me have indicated that we can be selective about who to save based on their politics and policies. I disagree, is all. I think humanity has some common enemies that transcend both the law and money.

[Atlas Sneezed]

And after you discover hundreds of John Smiths who died between 1980 and 2030 and many more who are still alive, what then?

---

Look for the one who wrote the book you want to copy.