Software Programming: When Is Sharing Ideas Considered Stealing? Many operating systems are very similar in nature. When a new feature comes out in an operating system, competing products eventually respond with a similar feature. In the open source community, the sharing of code and ideas is the normas long as no one benefits financially from thecommunal property. But does sharing ideas eventually become stealing?

Take a look at viewpoints shared in the table below and post a short paragraph or two with your thoughts as your contribution to this topic under discussion. Make sure you include aspects from both columns in the table below.

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You Can Borrow Ideas Without Penalty	Borrowing Software Ideas Is Stealing
Most operating systems are similarMac versus Windows and Unix and other open-source systems. Similarity can be helpful for orientating users to new environments.	Creating products from scratch will increase innovation.
Open source content, by nature, has few restrictions. It can be borrowed to be used on other projects.	Our creativity is reduced the more we lean on the same choices allowed by software packages.
Using other code or ideas that have been tried and are known to work makes other product development more efficient and better for the user.	Programmers of the original borrowed content wont be properly compensated for their original ideas.
No one will benefit if code is restricted and cannot be emulated.	Making modifications to a core concept isnt stealingits improvement.

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