I think Keith is railing against patent *profiteering* - the making of
large sums of money off something that shouldn't have been patentable
to begin with, due to the "obviousness" or "prior art" requirements.
yes, but my list of things that "shouldn't have been patentable to begin
with" includes a lot more than that!
basically, if you're trying to use your "ownership" of patents in order to
extort protection money out of people for developing or distributing
software, I regard this as a form of censorship, an infringement on the
right of free speech, and therefore, an act of violence.
the word "profiteering" is really far too kind.
Keith