Timely for today’s Istanbul NEG April Meeting, Paul Graham has a great post about ideas being copied:

Even when competitors realize your idea is good, (a) it will take them a long time to implement and (b) they’ll probably screw up critical things.

And finally, working on your ideas will lead you on to new ideas. So you’ll be a moving target; by the time competitors copy what you’re doing now, you’ll be doing more.

…

Worry most about how to make something people want. If you’re building anything good enough to copy, you’re way ahead.