New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Can you argue public/open-source code is publically funded/subsidized?

Ask HN: Can you argue public/open-source code is publically funded/subsidized?
4 by thrwawy74 | 2 comments on Hacker News.
I have a tenuous argument in my head. Several years ago "The Social Contract" was talked about in political circles. The basic idea being that if you're a successful business you owe some portion of your success to the city you're based out of being clean, devoid of crime, regulated, etc. If you want to operate a business in this space, you must adhere to its rules and you may prosper because of its protections. So here's what would be a very flawed argument: Can you say those contributing code to the public domain with open licenses were publically funded works? That the society which allowed them to create and contribute freely essentially funded or subsidized that development? The objective would be to protect free and open-source software as publically funded works, whether the author has the resources to defend the work from other companies are not. Could you protect it as a third-party? If this were true, you could compel companies to open software they've created derived from public works. The hideous other side of the coin is that countries could establish ownership rights over software created within their "borders". I know many go online and try to escape the society they live in because there are no borders online.