Publishing patents

["Brenno J.S.A.A.F. de Winter" <brenno@dewinter.com>]

Hello,

In Harmut's e-mail on miscelleaneous news something raises questions:

- The EPO is no longer publishing full patent information, using
  DRM (password protected PDF files) and incomplete publication
  to protect its proprietary database vending partners, thus 
  making the	FFII Software Patent Statistics http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/stats/
  of last year incomplete.

1. Doest this mean ordinary people cannot get to the patent information 
any more?
2. If this is the case, what is the value of a patent? The logic behind 
it once was quite simple: A person has a patent to share his invention 
with the world and doesn't loose the rights to the invention. Now one 
gets rights, but doesn't share information in return.
3. How can anyone prevent that one violates 'secret' patents?
4. What is the overall value of a patent now? And where does it differ 
from copyright then?

Cheers,

Brenno de Winter.