Dave Winer on software patents: “terrorism”
Dave Winer: General comment on software patents. It’s terrorism, something we’re familiar with after Sept 11, applied to technology. Our terrorists wear suits and have law degrees. It will result in bankruptcies, orphaned software, and users without tools to use. The lawyers will get rich (and the technologists who think like lawyers). Ethical technologists who welcome competition because they want to be compelled to create the best products will go by the wayside, replaced by pseudo-technologists who use lawyers as competitive weapons. Who’s to blame? In the US, it’s the USPTO who grant patent abusers a legal basis to hijack open formats and protocols and crash them into products and services offered by developers of all sizes. State-sponsored terrorism. [Scripting News]
