[whatshisface]

For software-as-a-service, trade secrets are easily kept. Not so much if google published a desktop version of their fancy product. And no, making saas the only viable platform is not a good outcome. (then we wouldn't have to worry about trusting the user, but we would have to worry about trusting the provider.)

[danielweber]

'jandrewrogers makes a very cogent point above when he points out that the patent system was put into place precisely to stop all information from being hidden. Without any legal protection, you have to create all sorts of ugly things (like guilds) in order to protect the things you develop.

We may have lost some of Shakespeare's plays because he had to be so secretive with his work, since he had no other legal protection from people just copying the stuff and putting on their own plays.

[chrisbennet]

I just read how Shakespeare borrowed/stole heavily from other artists of his time.[1] Today he would have been sued for this and you wouldn't have those plays at all perhaps.

[1] Last chapter of the recent book "Imagine" by Jonah Lehrer