[Kylekramer]

Apple is definitely not opposed to patents. I remember slides from the original iPhone announcement touting how much they patented their multitouch system (which apparently wasn't that well considering how I don't see those patents in any of their suits).

[kjksf]

At the same time Steve Jobs is openly and repeatedly quoting Picasso's "Good artists copy. Great artists steal." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU for one example) which directly contradicts the "let's monopolize ideas" trend.

They say often whatever is convenient and aligned with profit motif at most times and the truth some times.

Apple (i.e. Jobs) publicly talks about how many ideas they have monopoly on to scare competition, reassure analysts and because it the current legal system it is a great advantage. That's the profit motive speaking.

At times, when talking about necessity of stealing other people's ideas, Jobs speaks the truth because we all know that everything we build is an improvement on something else. Once we patent everything, there will be nothing to build on. No ability for new people to disloge incumbents by improving on what they did in the past and therefore no incentive for incumbents to improve. Why spend effort improving things if you can collect just as much money by selling the stuff you did 5 years ago?