On software patents, something I've devoted a hell of a lot of time to:
The commenters who mentioned "regulatory capture" and patent trolls are 100% right. But it's much worse than you think: the professional societies (ACM, IEEE) and tech industry management are solidly not in your corner, either. They've invested too much money in the current system.
Let's imagine that GitHub or StackOverflow or some other large developer forum ran a poll: "Are you in favor of abolishing software patents?" What do you think the results would be?
Why don't they ask the question? Unfortunately, they don't want to hear the answer. It might move Congress to actually do something, which they always prefer not to do.
And indeed, I have a quote from Joel in my paper [1].
However, the law is full of the phrase "practitioners in the art." A poll showing that a vast majority of practitioners of the art feel one way would have some effect. Whether it would be enough, or how long that would take, is an open question.
The commenters who mentioned "regulatory capture" and patent trolls are 100% right. But it's much worse than you think: the professional societies (ACM, IEEE) and tech industry management are solidly not in your corner, either. They've invested too much money in the current system.
Let's imagine that GitHub or StackOverflow or some other large developer forum ran a poll: "Are you in favor of abolishing software patents?" What do you think the results would be?
Why don't they ask the question? Unfortunately, they don't want to hear the answer. It might move Congress to actually do something, which they always prefer not to do.