The public
group · 2 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
the public · mankind at large · strangers
in the texts
The Law of Intellectual Property
The general body of people described in the reasonable-compensation theory as the true owner of inventions.
It asserts that the invention really belongs to the public, and not to himself.
And if the property have no rightful owner, it perhaps ought to go to the public, and to the government as the representative of, and trustee for, the public.
And this is a reasonable presumption, (in the absence of express evidence to the contrary,) because, during life, men usually labor for, and devote their property to the support and welfare of, their immediate families and relatives, in preference to strangers.
The Genius of the Common Law
The general populace whose clamour is credited (with irony) as the cause of the establishment of the small-claims courts.
In consequence of an idle and absurd clamour on the part of the public, some inferior courts were established a short time back to enable the common people to sue for small debts and damages under twenty pounds;