> But Franklin Computer Corporation’s hardware, software, and ad concepts were stolen intellectual property, which, I think, qualifies as “bad.”

"Intellectual property" is doing a lot of work in this sentence, in that it's a legal-sounding blanket term which somehow fails to mention which actual law Franklin broke. It's implying something is illegal without actually making the case. The cancerous growth of the vague concept of "intellectual property" leads to things like the DMCA, where formerly legal acts are outlawed in a kind of "penumbra" or "emanation" from acts which are concretely illegal, because they're getting "too close" to the imaginary line.

titzer5 hours ago | | | parent | | on: 47764494
Read the article. He copied the BIOS code straight up, including the copyright notice itself. That's blatant copyright infringement.
alnwlsn4 hours ago | | | parent | | on: 47764911
This was not understood to be so at the time, and the resulting court case was THE precedent that says that it is.

Franklin even won the initial case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Frankl....

bjord5 hours ago | | | parent | | on: 47764911
who, benjamin franklin?
titzer5 hours ago | | | parent | | on: 47764962
Sorry, they--i.e. Franklin computer.