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Branding an idea with your name does not make it yours,
using it does.*

Everything on this project is free to use anyway you like except if explicitly mentioned not (backlist to add).

Protections are imperfect and costly to implement

Why is that? Because the first aphorism is part of our philosophy. Is it too altruistic? No, it's being realistic. No protection is perfect so you will always find a way to bypass it. If it's technically perfect you will find social ways, if it's technically and socially perfect... how do you even know it exists?

Innovation is a social process

Thinking you own an idea is opposed to innovation. You never invent alone. You invent thanks to others that are helping you today and thanks to others who helped you before. How are you reading this very text right now? Using electricity, plastic, software design, etc... The authentic content your offer to the world exist BECAUSE other shared their knowledge before you.

Protecting doesn't insure profitability

Is the return on investment calculated on how many copies of your work you avoid to get stolen? No, the ROI is calculated on how many copy you sell anyway.

The only true protection is speed

In the end, your one and only protection is the speed you gain based on the experience you have. Innovating on tools help you only if you use them (tools in the general sense of the term, a financial product is a tool, a method is a tool, even hiring someone is considered a tool).

We believe in pure innovation as a competitive advantage in an environment with limited resources. If we use our own innovations before others, because we spend resources building them, then we can progress. If we patent but don't use them, there is no gain except a dreamed financial one.

Result : our licenses and intellectual properties

• Descriptive content like this text is under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.
• OIMP projects are under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.
• PIMP projects are under the license decided by their author, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported is the default.
• The platform is under GNU General Public License/GNU Affero General Public License, each external component have their own license that you need to check yourself.

Basically the only thing we ask is fair use. If you base your work on somebody's else, reference it. It is not only a question of respect to the author work but also a good practice for yourself. It allows your to backtrack your innovation process to improve it. It's a foundation of any good piece of work in science, art, literature and even life in general.

PS : maybe we are hopeless but we don't believe in Oscar Burke's Everything that could have been invented has been patented. ;)

References

• Wark, A Hacker Manifesto by McKenzie Wark
• Electronic Frontier Foundation on Innovation and Intellectual Property
• Unabomber's manifesto
• Text on patents by one of the founding fathers
• Security Maxims from Roger Johnston
• Speech on the The Pirate's Dilemma by Matt Mason for Los Angeles Creative Artists Agency
• Protecting Freedom In The Patent System: The Public Patent Foundation by Daniel B. Ravicher
• Available now : Our source code and Our content

To integrate

• Patent Crisis and The Age of Open Source Ideas by ReadWriteWeb
• autonomo.us - Toward Free Network Services
• Our view on copying vs linking to know why it best for you too to not just clone this.
• The Open Software Service Definition
• Who Owns Ideas? for CBC Radio, Ideas by Jim Lebans with host Paul Kennedy, November 2008

* From Fabien's aphorisms : Surfacing widsom?