Metaprogramming and Free Availability of Sources

[Richard Stallman]

    hmm... well, why do they keep the specs secret? i'm not sure, but i
    would guess that it'd be so that they could have a monopoly selling
    software that uses their hardware.

Their reasons might vary from case to case, and I do not really know.
But in some cases I have heard that they are keeping secrets about the
hardware design from each other.  If that is their reason, eliminating
copyright would not change the situation.