A Brief History of Open Source Data Technologies - DATAVERSITY

Openly sharing information has been a part of human culture since the beginning of civilization. Information would be shared with the general community and the practice has had a powerful impact on the development of tools and machinery. In opposition to this practice, is the concept of ownership and control over new ideas and concepts, also known as "intellectual property." While the open sharing of new ideas is difficult to abuse, patents can be abused, with a reasonable amount of planning. For example, in 1879, George B. Selden, a patent lawyer, applied for a patent, claiming ownership of the "idea" of a 2-cycle gasoline-powered engine, and, for devious monetary reasons, delayed its patent office approval until "1895."