We thought the great man had been carved up into as many occupational and philosophical pieces as possible. But then we stumbled across Lewis Hyde's diverting new book Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership, which includes a chapter titled, "Benjamin Franklin, Founding Pirate."
In his writings and his actions, Hyde writes that Franklin was a "commonwealth man in the style of Jefferson." He understood the United States Constitution's copyright language "as a balance between a short-term monopoly and a long-term grant to the public. That the clause might become the ground for creating a perpetual property right for individuals and private corporations would have astounded him."
Benjamin Franklin rebelled against knowledge as eternal property through his whole life. Hyde gives us a portrait of him that reveals this in his writings and works.
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