Early on, when software was developed by computer scientists, just people working with computers, people passed around software because that was how you got computers to do things.
Data is the next Intel Inside.
What new technology does is create new opportunities to do a job that customers want done.
Obscurity is a bigger problem for authors than piracy.
Create more value than you capture.
Empowerment of individuals is a key part of what makes open source work, since in the end, innovations tend to come from small groups, not from large, structured efforts.