A friend sent me this:

"How is it possible for one to own the stars?"

"To whom do they belong?" the businessman retorted, peevishly.

"I don't know. To nobody."

"Then they belong to me, because I was the first person to think of it."

"Is that all that is necessary?"

"Certainly. When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you discover

an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you get an idea before any one else, you

take out a patent on it: it is yours. So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before

me ever thought of owning them."

— Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince (1945)