follow-up to the two cents post on patented story lines: one of the comments in the slashdot thread links to the seminal short story that formed so much of my attitude toward "intellectual property" a couple decades ago: spider robinson's must-read melancholy elephants.

Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. The human body, apart from its glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fine vellus hair.

Property is usually thought of as being defined and protected by the local sovereignty. Ownership, however, does not necessarily equate with sovereignty. If ownership gave supreme authority, it would be sovereignty, not ownership. These are two different concepts.

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