It's a good thing nobody has noticed me yet, or the following might draw some ire from many Steemians out there. Who am I kidding? I love rattling cages. It's too bad nobody ever sees my posts. At any rate, let's get right down to the crux of the issue:
Ideas are ephemeral and vaporous, given substance only when they are shared. While nobody may claim ownership of the intangible thoughts in your head, you likewise cannot claim ownership over the thoughts of others. Once you pass an idea into the collective consciousness, it is no longer yours to claim. It is communal. You may have been the first to breathe life into it, but once it is out there it can be assimilated by other minds, and within those minds it may even evolve beyond anything that you had ever conceived.
This is not to say that others ought not to show gratitude for your contribution. Many will do so, should they find value from it. That is for them to judge. It is not your place to demand tribute for the value that you place on your idea.
If you do not want your idea to be shared, then do not share it. Lock it up. Keep it secret. Ideas are viral. You cannot possible presume to control how they spread. This is the natural state of things. In ancient times, stories were passed along from one mind to the next, evolving as they did so. The original teller of the story could not possibly demand payment from all those who shared his story. It would be unthinkable to attempt to censor the telling of his story by others.
The concept of intellectual property is unnatural. To patent a design is to declare that no other individual may ever assemble a specified assortment of materials into a given or similar configuration; even though the materials they hold are owned by that individual and not yourself. The same goes for a story, a song, or any other idea. Ideas are meant to be shared.
