text: Interesting article.  IP is often only seen as a good and a driver of R&D effort, but there is a negative side in that it stifles communication (ironically in this age).  It also acts as a barrier to small players who often have the most innovative ideas but lack the deep pockets and law teams of the incumbents.
  
  IP was started as an incentive program in a time when communication was much less efficient and by people who understood this tradeoff. It has morphed into a right.  Extensions to copyrights have even been applied retroactively, adding nothing in the way  incentives but adding to the costs and barriers side of IP.