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Inventing the Telephone, Independently
An anonymous reader writes "There is a nice article about the history of the telephone at AmericanHeritage.com. Most of us know that Alexander Bell beat Elisha Gray to the patent office by mere hours to claim credit for the invention of the telephone, but did you know that two other inventors can also claim the invention, including Thomas Edison? Similar disputes about independent invention and patent ownership can be found regarding the television, the airplane, and the automobile. Maybe it really is true: the economic benefit of encouraging patents is like that of encouraging window breaking."
Patents are one of the few ideas in the US that allow somebody to prevent you from doing something perfectly moral and legal just because they have a "privilage" from the government. Patents allow somebody else, with the government's help [remember, guys with legal guns] to take your hard work and property because you infringed the idea of somebody else.. even if you knew nothing about the idea! I'd say that's pretty violent!