[Patents] monopoly/publicity contradiction?

[Gregory Aharonian srctran@world.std.com]

Bernard writes:
>But someone made the point that the very role of programmers is to
>invent ... and being in a world of intangibles, they do that much more
>often than, say, mechanics.  So the patent system (potantially) gets
>in the way a lot more often, becoming a hindrance rather than a help.

Based on what evidence?  I spend most of days in university engineering
libraries, and I can tell you the volume of publications on software
continues to grow exponentially.  Libraries are running out of room to
store new books, journals and conferences.  So I cannot see any
non-trivial negative impact due to software patents on the ability of
programmers around the world to come up with new ideas and publish
them.

Similarly, the number of ads for (new) software products also tends to
continual increase, as everyone and their brother tries marketing their
latest software package.  Overall industry sales are doing quite well
suffering mostly from piracy.

Finally, I have seen little to no impact on consultants being able to
offer their wares, because for the most part, it is difficult for
patent holders to monitor and prosecute individual and/or one-time use
of their patents.

Not to say that software patents aren't having economic impact (trust me
I know), but rather that I doubt very highly their impact is any 
different from another industry.  All industries have stupid patents
that are used to harass others, I probably see more of this in the
biotech world.

There is nothing special about programming.  It is just another job in
another industry.

Greg Aharonian