This is one of those issues that I feel is more a member of tribal affiliation than anything substantive. It's like flag burning for us Republicans: if I were to rank order my political objectives, "prevent flag burning" would be somewhere in the x0,000s, but the tribe cares about this a lot for philosophical reasons (which I'm broadly speaking on board with) and as a result uses it as a signaling mechanism.
Software patents strikes me as signaling for geeks, or the techno-libertarian-esque streak that is pretty common in the community at any rate. Is it an important issue? Well, yeah, I'd love to see it addressed. Someday. Maybe after flag burning.
There are many, many issues used for signaling that I feel about similarly.
Couldn't disagree more. Sure, as a society of wanna-be/successful code entrepreneurs, we are more likely to be affected by this issue. But that doesn't mean the issue isn't substantive. It is more accurate to say that the majority of people outside of our "tribe" are simply unaware of patents and the type of burden it places on innovative thinking. Your argument essentially points to software patents being a non-issue. If that were true, we wouldn't be seeing well written websites taken down or extorted through the patent system.
I'm not just flag burning here. Privacy might be a better issue to put into the "tribal affiliation" buckets as I have heard of few real instances where privacy actually harmed a real person (I'm talking about stuff like google tracking your searches). As a developer, there is a real chance you will get sued over patents, and if you do there will be real damage done.
Your discussion of "Tribe Signalling" is interesting. It reminds me of all the stuff that Desmond Morris was talking about in "the Human Animal" (and more recently http://www.exactitudes.com/). By wearing certain clothes you're sending a signal to others about political POV, likes dislikes, interests etc... It helps you find other like minded individuals.
Maybe you're right that being against software patents is generally a tribal signal that says "I'm a hacker" or "computer-type".
When I logged into the comment thread, I was thinking the exact same sort of thing. "Well Duh"
The Hacker News audience is somewhere near 100% the exact demographic that you'd expect to be generally against software patents.
It's like logging on to a Twilight fan-board and asking "Are vampires Awesome?"
Predictability of hackers' opposition to software patents doesn't render that opposition inconsequential or irrelevant (unlike a vampire fan's opinion of vampires).
I can think of at least two pragmatic, immediate reasons the patent system needs to be addressed:
-The HTML5 video codec wars and the rise of patent pool companies like the MPEG-LA (which, besides licensing H.264, is reportedly forming a patent license pool for VP8 entirely independently from Google)
-Relatedly, the patent pools forming around next-gen communication protocols like LTE, a 3G successor
The communications pools in particular are worrisome -- the licensors in the pools used to be manufacturers who happened to hold patents and used these pools to encourage widespread adoption but the increasing involvement of holding companies and pool packagers is turning licensing into a primary business, which is overall bad news.
Is that because you think the problem crops up so rarely, or because you think the problem is very minor in general? Do you think you would feel differently if you were sued for gazillions of dollars for violating a patent on, say, using computers to create games for use in schools?
This is not a "signaling" issue, it is hugely important. One of the few industries that has been generating tons of innovation and jobs over the last 20 years is under constant attack from stupid patents, but you think that is less important than banning flag burning?
The economic harm of the uncertainty created by the patent system is way greater than the harm done by the cases that make it into the news.
And this harm is ignored by almost everyone (at least somebody else in this thread pointed it out) including "geeks" the focus is on specific examples of patents being abused).
Software patents strikes me as signaling for geeks, or the techno-libertarian-esque streak that is pretty common in the community at any rate. Is it an important issue? Well, yeah, I'd love to see it addressed. Someday. Maybe after flag burning.
There are many, many issues used for signaling that I feel about similarly.