[dantheman]

I think the full quote is more revealing:

And Microsoft knows the problems which might be caused by software patents very well. Here is a quote from Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1991: "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today." Most interesting is Mr. Gates conclusion: "The solution is patenting as much as we can. A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high. Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors."

http://fsfe.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/article-20060421.en.html

So he acknowledges that patents are harmful, but given that they exist the correct strategy is to patent as much as you can.

[rickmode]

Hate the game, not the players.

And Google has adopted the same strategy. Corporations do not have any human sense of morals, fairness, or ethics much as mobs will commit crimes any individual in the mob would never consider. Groups do not think and function like individuals.

And we can't expect these for-profit groups to spend energy fixing the system. Any single company would be penalized compared to its peers if it spent time, people, and money lobbying governments for change.

The solution must be individuals and/or a consortium of some sort.