Again, patents, or more correctly 'letters patent', or 'an open licence to monopoly at the sovereign's pleasure' was intended to sanction a limited monopoly. In our time it can reasonably be interpreted as 'a reward for intellectual innovation, protected from competition for a limited time. Given the life of software, that fits the need. Patents also, at least nominally, reward and encourage innovation. Innovations are a bit long in the tooth 16 years later. Commercial interest has degraded the idea and the practice, especially in the C20, but far more disgusting than patent law is the change to copyright law, which now gives a meal-ticket to 'heirs, assigns and successors' for up to 70 years' after the death of the (original creator of the 'work') copyright owner. We consumers of software could be worse off than we are, in the same boat as lovers of music, literature, graphic art and so on.

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