Reading Programming

Why is it that greed blinds so many?

In some cases, people are so invested in protecting thier own investment, that they completely devalue the exact same imperitive held by others. That's not too outside of human nature, but what really bothers me, is how far people are willing to go. I am no professional, and I really don't know all that much about software, but this latest patent skirmish really and truly scares me. It will be the first step towards complete lack of choice that our country takes.

The way I see it, software patents destroy any and all hope of meeker and lesser companies from introducing themselves into the market. When something as simple as a mouse click can be copyrighted (and beleive it or not, it is copyrighted by IBM), I can only help but wonder if such things in real life were copyrightable, what would life be like? Not everyone walks sideways, and maybe the first person to do it copyrights it, we'd be taxed for simply living day in and day out.

Does anyone else see the inherent dangers of software copyrights, or is it just me?

...