DTM.1:2 - Problem

Dependence, replication advantage and useful work are different relations. A method description can be copied while competent performance disappears. A provider can gain more customers while those customers also gain. A variant can persist because it brings benefits, because alternatives are inaccessible, or because its continuation is rewarded even when the work suffers.

Classifying the whole situation as “parasitism” conceals which of these mechanisms would have to change. Conversely, calling it “cooperation” can conceal a cost transferred to someone outside the comparison.