A reasonable tradeoff to explore is that software ought to work like a halfway-point between copyright and patents: in exchange for an exclusive right to distri

A reasonable tradeoff to explore is that software ought to work like a halfway-point between copyright and patents: in exchange for an exclusive right to distribute your binaries for 10-15 years, you provide your documentation for how it works (including source code) so others can build on your work after the exclusivity period ends. The exclusive right does not cover the basic idea/independent implementations of the same functionality. Potentially utilitarian software and creative software could be treated differently, e.g. have an escrow for games (for which user customizations are less important). Obviously DRM to restrict user modifications is unethical and harmful toward functioning markets and should be illegal.