> I don't understand this. How would patents have prevented him thinking about it ? I don't understand this logic. He would have rejected it as impractical as

> I don't understand this. How would patents have prevented him thinking about it ? I don't understand this logic. He would have rejected it as impractical as one could not release free software, as he did, given the constraints if the more fundamental algorithms had been patented. Imagine if every sort of sorting was patented, for example.