I have been rereading Benjamin Franklin’s  Autobiography.  Franklin wrote that in 1742 he “invented an open stove for the better warming of rooms, and at the same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in entering.” He wrote and published a pamphlet describing and promoting his invention. Its lengthy title concludes with “and all Objections that have been raised against the Use of them answered an obviated.” Franklin did not lack self-c0nfidence! The royal governor of Pennsylvania “was so pleas’d with the construction of this stove…that he offered me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin’d it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.” (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005, p. 92.)

Franklin understandably took mild umbrage, however, over “An ironmonger in London however, assuming a good deal of my pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and making some small changes in the machine, which rather hurt its operation, got a patent for it there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it.” (pp. 92-93)

Would that the Creative Commons license had been available to Franklin in 1742!