Benjamin Franklin Open Source Hero Keith Lofstrom May 23, 2009

Benjamin Franklin made his money as a printer. His Poor Richard's Almanac was the most popular publication in the 1700s in America, and it made him wealthy. I don't know if he had problems with people copying his writing without paying, but he certainly printed a lot of British writing without permission, not paying the authors a cent. Other American printers actually paid spies in London to steal galleys of new work, and spirit them across the Atlantic on fast ships for unauthorized publication. So new works would hit the streets in London, and unauthorized editions would hit the streets in America, almost simultaneously.

In Europe, Franklin was known and revered, not as a literary "pirate", but as the inventor of the lightning rod, the Harmonium, and the Franklin stove. Franklin made a free gift of his discoveries and inventions, gained at considerable expense, effort, and personal risk, to the world. Franklin wrote many interesting articles in his Almanac, and his fame and expertise improved sales. He remains one of the most famous scientists and inventors in American history.

Indeed, because of his fame as an inventor, he was welcome at the royal court of France. This directly led to French financial and military support for the American revolution, and helped create strong support in Britain for American independence as well. Franklin's lightning rod, and the good will his free donation of it created around the world, led to the successful founding of the United States.

If Franklin had been greedy and sought British patents, his invention would not have been nearly so widespread, and he would have probably been perceived very differently in Europe. The American Revolution would still have happened, but it would have been far longer and bloodier without French support. Perhaps it would drag on as a stalemated guerrilla war until Napoleon lent his support to thwart his British enemies.

This alternate "patent" Franklin would have likely died in a fancy house in London, exiled from a destroyed Philadelphia and his beloved Pennsylvania. That is how his son William, the Loyalist last governor of colonial New Jersey, ended up.

So when someone trots out the idea that the American Revolution was a propertarian revolution, and that ideas and inventions are property, tell them about Benjamin Franklin, one of the essential founders of American Independence. Franklin would have scorned the idea that thousands of American Patriots died, and that he spent a decade away from his family as a diplomat in Europe, so that inventors could punish others for copying their inventions.

In Franklin's view, inspiration was a gift of Providence, granted for long effort and appreciation of the truth. That inspiration, the opportunity to help others, and the respect of the good-hearted, were all the reward that a great inventor like Franklin ever sought for his creative work. Franklin was one of the early contributors to the open science movement, the prototype for the open source movement.

It is fun to imagine the conversation that Benjamin Franklin and Linus Torvalds might have.

Postscript, 2011 March 2: Lewis Hyde's fascinating "Common As Air" also praises Benjamin Franklin, and excerpts a 1753 letter to Peter Collinson. The last paragraph of the letter shows that Franklin truly understood open source collaboration: