Oh you're absolutely right, the notion that you can own information is absurd. Maybe it was necessary at one time as a kind of training-wheels for innovation,

Oh you're absolutely right, the notion that you can own information is absurd. Maybe it was necessary at one time as a kind of training-wheels for innovation, but we've long since outgrown it. It'll only ever get more and more absurd. But if somebody you don't know is doing something that's benefiting you, and you're not contributing to their ability to continue doing that thing in some way, then you might be shooting yourself in the foot. In any future worth pursuing, they'd be free to stop contributing if they felt like it, but wouldn't it be a shame if they did so without even knowing that their contributions were considered incredibly valuable by somebody? Like, imagine if Pythagoras couldn't afford food and had to give up geometry club and get a "real job". That would be to everybody's detriment. So while I think that "property" is the wrong tool here--we shouldn't be witholding access to our contributions for any reason--I do think we need something that's a little more impactful than an upvote for saying "more like this please".