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I would like to see a legally enforced compulsion to work for the public good and not the investor good.

That sounds a lot like a non-profit.

I think this would work way better as a privately-led effort than a matter of law. Look for struggling companies with interesting "IP" assets that are currently heavily undervalued by the market (because it's hard for an individual, private buyer to make a profit on them). Buy the assets and open them up. Yes, it takes some money and resources - but how much, compared to re-developing those assets from scratch?

Well, we do have that law for patents. They expire in 20 years. And the patent itself "open-sources" the process being patented.