[lucio]

>allowing someone to own an idea is insane

Let's say you have an inspiration, then you work hard on that for 5 years designing up to the last detail of a [business online idea/product]. You put your service online/start selling your product. It's a hit.

Aware of your early success. $BIG COMPANY$ with thousands of engineers and millions of users copies all the details that make your idea a success.

Your early users migrate, now your site goes into the drain, along with all your years of thinking and hard work.

Are you sure that allowing someone to own an idea is insane?

[cloverich]

Good implementations of good ideas are rarely easy to copy, which is why so many acquisitions ask not only to buy the product but the team that made it as well. Moreover the last part of your argument also omits that big companies regularly buy the ideas (patent) meaning idea ownership mostly translates into big co idea ownership. Couple that with trivial ideas being patentable (eg website shopping cart), frivolous lawsuits abound, etc. I think your argument sounds good in theory but in practice leads to the exact detriment it proclaims to protect.

Lastly I think the last part of your argument is less compelling if you view it from the customers angle: you shouldn’t be able to go to a different company just because they can offer something you want (better / cheaper), you should have to stick with whoever came up with it first.