[Patents] Counterexamples to John, Hartmut, Edward

[Gregory Aharonian srctran@world.std.com]

John writes:
>Posters here have cited drug development as an area where the patent
>system works, and I think that there are plenty such areas.

Don't say that do people in third world countries who can't afford to
use patented AIDS drugs.  You can't use some patented software, you
do something else with software.  You can't use some patented AIDS
drug, you die.  So when it comes to suffering because of software patents,
that is nothing compared to the suffering of lack of access to drugs,
which has become so controversial that it is an issue in the current
US presidential campaign.

>That is why I am all riled up against software patents.  It feel as if
>the system holds a gun to my head with every piece of code I write.

Unless the code you are writing is going to be worth lots and lots of 
money, no one with a software patent is ever going to pay the slightest
bit of attention to the code you are writing.  You paranoia is greatly
exaggerated.

Greg Aharonian