Um excelente [comentário](http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=153376&cid=12870214) no [Slashdot](http://www.slashdot.org), por gbulmash, que reproduzo aqui na íntegra sobre o perigo das patentes de software.
> I’ve never seen the patent concept put in such easy-to-understand terms before. I didn’t need it explained to me (of course :-)), but after reading it, I had better ideas on how to explain it to others.
> OTOH, it might be more accessible if he’d used a more accessible example. The example appeals more to the French and francophiles, and fans of great literature. I’d apply it to sandwiches. Imagine if every sandwich shop had to pay the Earl of Sandwich $1 for every sandwich they sold (and then had to pass that cost on to the consumer in the form of higher prices). Then EoS sues McDonalds, as a hamburger is actually a hamburger sandwich, and since he’s getting $1 a sandwich from Akbar’s Gas n’ Munch on 135th Street, he’s suing McDonalds for $100 billion.
> But the guy who patented combining cheese and meat is suing McDonalds. And so is the guy who patented the extending sandwich flavor by adding condiments. And so is the guy who patented the idea of conveying french fries to customers in a cardboard container. And so is the guy who patented a method of conveying liquid from a distributing nozzle to the customer by means of a cyllindrical shaped device open at only one end (i.e. a freakin’ CUP). And yes, the cup, and mayonnaise, and cheeseburgers, and fries in a cardboard carton all seem like obvious inventions with lots of prior art. But we’ve seen such silliness get through the patent office in America.
> Don’t think the government is going to put the money in place to keep some overworked, underpaid patent examiner from approving a patent on cheeseburgers! And once the patent is granted, getting it revoked or dismissed is so expensive that every little burger stand will pay the guy who got the cheeseburger patent $10,000 a year because they don’t have the $10,000,000 to fund the challenge.
> When granted for truly original inventions within a certain limited scope, patents are a wonderful thing that encourage innovation. But that’s in theory. In practice, they’re something else entirely.
> Don’t let the patent lawyers and the politicians they lease paint rosy pictures of theory over the cesspit of practice. Don’t let software patents pass in Europe.
> - Greg