We are, of course, talking about research to develop intellectual property. Probably most people on HN are employed in producing protected intellectual property in some way.
> Probably most people on HN are employed in producing protected intellectual property in some way.
I don't think most people on HN even believe in intellectual property conceptually, much less view their activities through that lens.
I develop software, and that software has a license (mostly AGPLv3 at this point) because I live in the real world. But it's nobody's property; it's just math.
Maybe I'm just missing your line of reasoning here. I thought you were saying that you expected people on HN to rush to the defense of intellectual property as a viable abstraction for understanding (for example) software or research. Do I have it wrong?
Yes, companies exist in the real world. The real world is full of open source. And full of companies that produce open source material and don't regard it as "intellectual property" except insofar as to license it to protect themselves and their users/readers/customers.
