I think the claim that there are any restrictions on memex is somewhat unusual and is the thing that requires explaination!
Bush's Memex was explained in an essay[1]. There's no intellectual property restrictions around any of the ideas there, and some of the explanations were so rooted in the technology of the day that the idea of restrictions on them doesn't make any sense:
> Most of the memex contents are purchased on microfilm ready for insertion. Books of all sorts, pictures, current periodicals, newspapers, are thus obtained and dropped into place. Business correspondence takes the same path. And there is provision for direct entry. On the top of the memex is a transparent platen. On this are placed longhand notes, photographs, memoranda, all sorts of things. When one is in place, the depression of a lever causes it to be photographed onto the next blank space in a section of the memex film, dry photography being employed.
Even putting aside the microfilm technology, most (all?) of the concepts described in the essay seem freely available.
I'm not saying the technology would be prohibited... I'm saying that making copies of copyrighted works would be prohibited... which is the main way that a memex was meant to work.
Record companies freaked out when people started using Napster, a Memex for music. I'm sure the same would happen if I were to download an article from the New York Times, for example... and repost it with a copy of my notes added.
The copying of material is the thing that is just a no-go these days.
Bush's Memex was explained in an essay[1]. There's no intellectual property restrictions around any of the ideas there, and some of the explanations were so rooted in the technology of the day that the idea of restrictions on them doesn't make any sense:
> Most of the memex contents are purchased on microfilm ready for insertion. Books of all sorts, pictures, current periodicals, newspapers, are thus obtained and dropped into place. Business correspondence takes the same path. And there is provision for direct entry. On the top of the memex is a transparent platen. On this are placed longhand notes, photographs, memoranda, all sorts of things. When one is in place, the depression of a lever causes it to be photographed onto the next blank space in a section of the memex film, dry photography being employed.
Even putting aside the microfilm technology, most (all?) of the concepts described in the essay seem freely available.
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m...