> free-riding off somebody else's ingenuity is fundamentally unfair Ideas are not a rival good. When you share an idea with someone, you don't lose half of it

> free-riding off somebody else's ingenuity is fundamentally unfair Ideas are not a rival good. When you share an idea with someone, you don't lose half of it. You both get the whole idea. So it's not a zero-sum game. As long as the genius gets rewarded, free riding is fair. > How much innovation happens without funding? […] Some ideas are harder to generate (e.g. RSA) Well, the best and hardest ideas tend to be state-funded anyway. RSA for instance was funded by MIT salaries¹ (Rivest, Shadir, and Abelman worked there). ARPANET (now the internet) was basically a DOD project. You're right, inventions need funding. Patent just aren't the only way —nor, I would argue, the most efficient. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_%28cryptosystem%29#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_%28cryptosystem%29#History