Software start-ups have a phrase for what Amazon is doing to them: ‘strip-mining’ them of their innovations.
This is a really negative side of what is happening en masse right now, and has always been a part of the software industrial complex. I am reminded of the days of all of the Unix variants from SGI, Sun, Digital, et al. Their workstations, servers, and distributions all reeked of open source software made proprietary for exploit.
Source: Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World – The New York Times