Look , the idea of a car or a computer or an operating system IS "open source" ;BUT you aren't LEGALLY allowed to make an exact copy of anything still protected by patents or copyrights and sell or give away copies without the patent or copyright holders' permission.You may make a car,but not a close copy of a Ford,nor can you call your car a Ford.
Now is that concept too limiting for you?
The analogy should apply, although in practice it doesn't. One can legally produce and sell an exact copy of a Ford oil filter. One cannot, however, legally produce and sell an exact copy of a Hewlett-Packard DeskJet cartridge.
Re: "sell or give away," WTF? Hint: First-sale doctrine. Any legally produced and obtained copy may be transferred by the owner. I don't think anyone's really sought a way to transfer ephemeral copies, e.g. music purchased from iTunes, but it will happen eventually. The legal definition of ephemeral will likely evolve as society's use of technology advances.
Re: patents, software patents are particularly dangerous, as evidenced by modern companies patenting methods (only the method can be patented--the source code is copyrighted) that have been commonplace for a century or more. It's a bit of a land grab.
