In feudalism, the downside of that approach was that if you went off on your own, armies would generally come and (at best) repossess the land or (at worst) kill you.

As a programmer, you don't have quite the same issues. Where do you see the monopolized resources and/or forced prevention of exit being for us? We're not exactly medieval serfs that way, and starting a software-based company is, as pg repeatedly mentions, way cheaper than it's ever been.