I've always said Ben Franklin was the father of open source, at least as pertains to hardware: "Of the numerous inventions Franklin created, he did not patent a

I've always said Ben Franklin was the father of open source, at least as pertains to hardware: "Of the numerous inventions Franklin created, he did not patent a single one"; see http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_little.html http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_inquiring_little.html