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Yes, but he most definitely has the money to buy the patent and then open source it. Sort of like he did with Tesla.

Tesla isn't open-source in any traditional sense of the word.

They phrase it as having 'an open-source philosophy', but what it really boils down to is that they continue to file patents[0], but choose not to use those patents in an anti-competitive manner, only 'defensively' (on their word).

Now this isn't attempting to conflate patents with 'open-source', but that ship sailed after Elon's memo regarding the concept in 2014.[1]

[0]: https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/static/pages/ppubsbasic.ht... [1]: https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

Yes, Tesla isn't 'open source' in any traditional sense of the word - you're absolutely right. All I'm trying to say is that what he's done with Tesla's patents is far more 'open' than choosing to aggressively police those that wish to use those patents. Thus, I think if he wanted to 'open source' (read: open up to a certain degree) hyper loop's patents, it would be entirely feasible for him to do so, since he has a track record of having done so in the past. No point in being pedantic over 'open source' - just see it as 'opening up to a certain degree'.

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