Communication Ethics book part for Quick Reminder . (This is an automatically generated summary to avoid having huge posts on this page. Click through to read this post.)

I want to re-emphasize that I am arguing against software patents, not patents in general. Limited rewards for doing real research seems reasonable to me, even if I sometimes find the use of such patents by certain entities unethical. One can also make a good case that the Patent Office is doing more harm then good simply because of its inability to correctly perform its function due to under staffing, and a technology environment too complicated to allow "human review" to scale correctly. I am not making those arguments here. I am simply arguing that patents should not apply to software.