let's stamp out proprietary data formats (and patent profiteering)
in our lifetime.
and then the incentive to innovate is what, exactly?
people often create things for reasons other than wanting to control them.
this happens so often that it's the rule rather than the exception.
if you don't believe this, it's because you haven't been looking.
there are other ways to benefit from something than to control it.
I work on networking protocols because I wish to benefit from
their deployment in the world. (to be sure, I want the rest of the
world to benefit also) controlling them would not serve my purpose;
in fact, it would prevent it.
Keith