Free?

[Chante]

"Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:op.v3yn2di8eav7ka at localhost.localdomain...

> the fact that software  patents are *rarely* beneficial to the 
> community.

"the fact"? Citation to scientific studies required.

"THE community". You mean "the entitled" set who couldn't create anything 
on their own if their life depended on it? Those who can't program 
themselves out of a paper bag? Those who want everything, right now and 
don't want to work or invest the time to learn? The cognitively lazy? 
What-is/whom-are this "THE community" group?

> They are mostly used as  weapons to stifle innovation from others.

So to not "give, Give, GIVE!" to these people: 
http://www.aspeneducation.com/article-entitlement.html, is "to stifle"? 
Are you one of them trying to propagandishly conceiving scenario like a 
child trying to "get their way"? Are you are tantrumming because no one 
will give you everything you want and won't wait on you hand and foot?

> In essence, software patents  have had an *opposite* effect on the 
> industry compared to something like  building cars.  In other words, 
> there's no need for patents to allow  software ideas to be seen by 
> others, it's possible to extract the ideas  from the code.

That sounds like a threat. Of course, those with the ability to create 
and who have invested their time in learning, rather than "copying 
someone else's homework" do not see the copycat followers as threats at 
all, but rather as wastes of life.