Who Owns Ideas?

In the intellectual sphere, property appears as a particularly perverse restriction on the process of creativity. You cannot take somebody elses work and build on it, because it is copyrighted, even where there is no direct loss to the owner. Yet over the past 20 years there has been a tremendous expansion of intellectual property (IP). Its impact has been most evident in the most dynamic new industries - IT and biotechnology - as well as in the much hyped cultural industries - film, music and publishing - contributing to the impression of an information society in which all the value that counts is IP.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000002D42C.htm

Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

You could give Aristotle a tutorial. And you could thrill him to the core of his being. Aristotle was an encyclopedic polymath, an all time intellect. Yet not only can you know more than him about the world. You also can have a deeper understanding of how everything works. Such is the privilege of living after Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Planck, Watson, Crick and their colleagues.Im not saying youre more intelligent than Aristotle, or wiser. For all I know, Aristotles the cleverest person who ever lived. Thats not the point. The point is only that science is cumulative, and we live later.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dawkins/lecture_p1.html