Re: [Patents] The politics of software over-protection -- moving forward..

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    More precisely: there are perhaps other good messages (e.g. "patents are
    nowadays too broad/abstract"

That is true, but I have found that it is counterproductive to
emphasize that point.

Many people seem to have an inexplicable reluctance to think ill of
the patent system.  If you give them an excuse to blame the problems
on the details (such as patenting obvious ideas or broad patents),
they will use that to avoid critizing the system overall.

A patent does not need to be broad to be disastrous--consider LZW.
When Microsoft sets out to make a patented technique the standard, it
can use a narrow patent as easily as a broad patent.