Say what one will about how the system of patent and copyright has been corrupted and abused, the original intent was good: "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." (Emphasis on "for limited times", though copyright owners seem to be able to buy laws to endlessly extend those limited times.)
We don't have that in SL, nor do we seem to have the culture of science or scholarly fields, where people publish their results (or perish, in the sense of not getting credit, as Tartaglia learned the hard way) and build on what others have done. Instead, it appears that SL creators treat their discoveries as trade secrets, and I fear that slows progress. Even Isaac Newton, inventor (along with, but independently of, Leibniz) of the integral and differential calculus, and the laws of motion, characterized his work as possible because he stood on the shoulders of giants.
What can be done about this?
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