This has happened before. The community has almost already created an unofficial patent system. If you are familiar with the Infusion Mod 4.0 episode (which most DZ form goers are) you'll understand where I'm coming from. In places like the cncmatrix and dz forums the mod was snubbed and in extreme cases people attacked it
But in other forums it was praied and the stealing behavior was encouraged. It divided the community although altogether "justice" prevailed and the mod author quit