Obviously because these "originators" as you called them, mostly work at high tech US companies like IBM, HP, Sun, who have access to the best technology we have to offer here in the US. They then clone other software, mostly from the US and often made by their parent company, and give it away to the rest of the world via Stallman's license. Like most Green Party schemes it's a US giveaway program that is designed to attack US companies and support communist governments like Cuba. Thankfully, patents will probably stand in the way, else these kooks left up to their own ambition would give it all away, eventually.
So you're talking about cloning, not copying. Like Windows is a VMS clone, BSD is a UNIX clone, Vista's UI is an OS X clone, etc.?
Thankfully, patents will probably stand in the way
Windows likely violates several patents held by the Open Invention Network, including key Web services patents that could seriously hurt Microsoft. Oracle is also a member, so Microsoft had better watch out for what patents SQL Server violates. IBM is also a member, and they have more software patents than anybody else.
Software patents are a double-edged sword, so Microsoft is playing with fire. There is NO application of any decent complexity that does not violate somebody's patent, and Microsoft has a lot of complex applications out there.