Two people on opposite sides of the world have exactly the same idea at the same time. Which one of those two people would be most morally justified in claiming to own the exclusive rights to that idea?

Should it be the first to dash through the doors of the USPTO office, with a big wad of cash in his hand?

Isn't that just further rewarding someone for already being affluent (or quick, or both), rather than rewarding him for having an original thought?

And how original are anyone's thoughts anyway?

Surely our knowledge is merely the sum of what we have been taught, and not some divine gift handed down from God, entitling the bearer to exclusive privileges. How can anyone claim exclusive rights to that which has been collected from others, such as authors; teachers; parents and peers? Are those contributors not equally entitled to attribution and rights to that knowledge? Are such contributors not also entitled to benefit from those ideas? Given the scope of where one acquires knowledge, shouldn't those beneficiaries encompass all mankind?

This is the essence of Free Software.

A couple of days ago I received this telephone call, the transcript of which is as follows:

Congratulations!
You have been randomly selected to receive a Florida Bahamas holiday with all accommodations.
To hear more details press "9".

FEMA sorry for fake news briefing -- chicagotribune.com

WASHINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency's No. 2 official apologized Friday for leading a staged news conference Tuesday in which FEMA employees posed as reporters while real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions.

"We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent," Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr., FEMA's deputy administrator, said in a four-paragraph statement.

I'm not an American, in fact I've never even been there (and frankly I don't think I ever will), but like most people I am completely appalled by the tenure in office of Mr. George "Dubya" Bush - a man who makes the most notorious dictators in history look tame by comparison.

I thought I knew quite a bit about how corrupt and evil Dubya was, until I came across a Blog called Monkey Lunch, which recites a litany of scandals against El Presidente several miles long.

Nearly two weeks after it was first reported that Anvsoft was violating the GPL, they continue to plagiarise Free Software such as mkisofs, cdrdao, dvdauthor, spumux, id3lib, lame, mpeg2enc, and mplex; by distributing a program called DVD Photo Slideshow, which includes the aforementioned GPL software, in violation of that license.

UPDATE!!! ... the issue now seems to be resolved, and I have personally verified that this software does now include a copy of the GPL, however I have yet to establish whether or not Anvsoft provide the corresponding source for that GPL software. I will update this entry as I get further information.