Something I have my doubts about. Ideas are
information, and as
Daniel Dennett put it (in the pretensiously titled
Consciousness Explained):
Information is the one commodity that can be given away and kept at the same time.
This means that `stealing someone's idea` is very different from `stealing someone's car`. Of course, it is't as simple as that. Worth thinking about though. I think this issue will become more and more central as computers and software become more central.