Ash

“The public domain is not some gummy residue left behind when all the good stuff has been covered by property law. The public domain is the place we quarry the building blocks of our culture. It is, in fact, the majority of our culture.”
― James Boyle, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind : Annotated Edition

“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”
― George Washington

“The principle is twofold, do not forget. The book, as a book, belongs to the author, but as a thought, it belongs – the word is not too extreme – to the human race. All intelligences, all minds, are eligible, all own it. If one of these two rights, the right of the writer and the right of the human mind, were to be sacrificed, it would certainly be the right of the writer, because the public interest is our only concern, and that must take precedence in anything that comes before us.”
― Victor Hugo

“...nothing is more properly a man’s own than the fruit of his study. The protection of literary property would greatly encourage genius and promote useful discoveries.”
― Noah Webster, A Collection of Papers on Political, Literary, and Moral Subjects (1843) [Leather Bound]