| 1) The cause in your example may be (a) something in the current events triggered ideas about those story lines. At the same time it can be that (b) people in Hollywood talk with each others about stories they want to put on the screen. Or it can be (c) that studio A has inside intelligence in studio B looking for interesting stories to be made in a movie. 2) It is similar to 2 startup companies starting tackling similar new problems. It may be because of (a) a new enabling technology came up or a change in the landscape that unlocks the new opportunity. Or because (b) the loop: entrepreneurs talk to investors -> investors talk with each others -> repeat Or because (c) entrepreneur A knows that entrepreneur B is up to something and find a way to spy on them to find what they are up to. 3) In the case discussed above, it may be (a) a new discovered bug on public forum leads to similar bugs being discovered, (b) researchers talking to each others in their circles, (c) a powerful entity getting access to the researcher's "secrets". The difference between (a), (b) and (c) causes is that (a) causes happen in public places. (b) causes happen in private circles. (c) it is not a result of deliberate communication, it is stolen IP. That is already a meaningful distinction. Now the questions is how often a, b, and c happen in the different context and how do they impact the outcome of the projects in the respective fields. In all examples, timing is one of the keys to be successful. The difference between (1), (2) and (3) is how legal or ethical the "exploiter" of the IP is abler to get the IP and their tolerance to risk. It seems that in our case(3) (c) is more likable than in the other cases considering the actors involved and their modus operandi. |