[Sleepytime]

Most IP should be scrapped completely in the age of free and cheap information. I really don't have any sympathy to big corps making money from IP, and small entities are finding more and more ways to give their IP away and find revenue elsewhere (hardware, swag, live events, Patreon, etc).

Scrapping IP would be a big step in making more, smaller, and more sustainable businesses instead of our current 'grow or get bought out' mindset.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is all that matters. I would wager that most reading this website have had strangers and family alike approach them for help with with their huge ideas, which really means "you are the programmer you do it all". Most of which are utterly unoriginal, yet they want you to sign an NDA or promise to keep it secret. Patents and to some extent copyright/trademarks tilt the scale heavily away from innovative ideas toward 'derivative but licenseable'.

I am running on 4 hours of sleep, hopefully my word salad makes sense.

[porknubbins]

Ideas being cheap and execution being everything applies mostly to businesses that laypeople people can think up and start. Because they are not usually in a position to do new research, but great execution is always scarce. In pharma (which I’ve worked in) and I guess other industries like semiconductors, materials etc good ideas are everything and competitors could copy the invention that took years to decades for just single or double digit millions so patents arguably drive a lot of research there.