[schrototo]

Wild animals don't know what they're doing, the people behind corporations do. Corporations are abstract constructs, but they're run by people. And in this case the people are amoral assholes, extortionists leeching off of the work of others.

[rbanffy]

The people who run corporations have obligations towards their investors. If they disagree, they may quit, but they cannot run a corporation against the interest of its investors. And, if they quit, someone will replace them.

This turns corporations into sociopath-like entities.

[schrototo]

Okay, then the blame lies with the investors... No matter how you try to view it, in the end there's always people involved. Of course reality is complex and there's always a number of interwoven causes for everything instead of a single determining factor. But, and maybe that's just me, I really don't like this hand-waving of any kind of personal responsibility because "corporations exist to make profit" or similar nonsense. As if that makes it somehow OK.

[ars]

"hand-waving of any kind of personal responsibility"

You have a different mindset. To you, enforcing these patents is evil. But to a company it's not. It's good. In fact they believe they have a personal responsibility to enforce them.

That won't change till congress changes the rules.

And the same is true for probably 99% of investors as well.

It's only a tiny minority of computer programmers that realize the problem.

[ars]

Yes they are, I quite agree. And it's still pointless to get mad at them.

[jamesaguilar]

How many times have you been mad about something it was pointless to be mad over? I'd guess a lot of times if you're like most people I know. In how many of those instances would it have been helpful for someone to say to you, "Hey, that thing you're mad over? Not useful to be mad about that." Probably not often, if you're anything like me.

[ars]

My very first post in this thread was a bit more helpful - I told him to redirect his anger toward congress.