I'm a little leery of this: People have to realise that an idea is worth nothing. An idea is worth nothing in the sense that an idea can't make money by itself

I'm a little leery of this: People have to realise that an idea is worth nothing. An idea is worth nothing in the sense that an idea can't make money by itself. There are still such things as better and worse ideas, and "your idea is worthless, so it's not stealing for me to use your idea" (a la http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2235218 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2235218) feels like a pretty slimy use of the phrase. "You aren't the only one who can have good ideas, and you don't own an idea just because you had it first" seems like a much less judgmental way to say this.