When Patents Attack!

This American Life takes on software patents and they do a great job of it. And kudos to Chris Sacca for having the stones to call out the oft-celebrated fraud Nathan Myhrvold and his terrible Intellectual Ventures.

I used to get optimistic when I’d see stories like this appear in more mainstream media sources. Most nerds have known for years that software patents are a terrible idea but now non-geeks can start to understand. Unfortunately, it’s not an issue enough people care about to affect any real change, especially when people like Myhrvold can write a few op-eds and throw a few millions at politicians to maintain the status quo. I expect this problem to only get worse.