That's just slang! You can't actually steal an idea! Once someone has made it po... | Hacker News

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		wildjim on Sept 2, 2010 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterat... That's just slang! You can't actually steal an idea! Once someone has made it possible for the idea to be shared -- even if they wrote it down and locked it in their safe -- then the information is already potentially accessible! Breaking-in to someone's home to steal the paper you wrote your idea on is explicitly the theft, and getting the idea written on it is a side-effect.

tvon on Sept 2, 2010 [–]

Looking at the OED definition: http://is.gd/eSaRt

first example:

> dishonestly pass off (another person‘s ideas) as one’s own: accusations that one group had stolen ideas from the other were soon flying

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