[edw]

For what it'a worth, my comment ends on a very "Meh, who cares?" note. I don't know where that puts me in the context of your agonizing over our society's depressing descent into Manichaean dichotomies.

P.S. My suggestion was intentionally absurd. I think it's more likely that, like someone else suggested, this patent would be used to prevent people from exploiting such systems.