I think a major potential for disruption is right here under our nose. Instead of approaching it from a political point of view (blame those politicians!) why d

I think a major potential for disruption is right here under our nose. Instead of approaching it from a political point of view (blame those politicians!) why don't someone with money create an alternative community-supported system of work attribution? You can imagine each company keeping a private/internal log of innovation in Merkle trees (with timed signatures by some central authority). All innovation and production is assumed to be original works of art until proven otherwise. In the current patent system, all innovation is public, but there is only 1 winner. In the new system, everybody can win if we all arrive at innovations independently. Problem solved, + you enforce good documentation practices. This is an engineering problem. Why don't you fund a startup that builds this system? If we all start using it, that's when we have the power to change the status quo. If we don't know what alternatives are out there, we have no chance of disabling the current system. I doubt that keeping the government out of software IP disputes altogether is a good idea, because realistically that won't work out -- it'll encourage stealing and the playing field will change for the worse.