I just found a very interesting effect of software patents: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/oct03/10-06EOLASPR.asp
As was posted on this list not so far ago, Microsoft lost a case against Eolas on some aspects of ActiveX embedding in IE. Their technical reaction is a good sample of what software patents cause: http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate/activexchanges.asp In short - a lot of web pages are broken (even PDF should not work in all cases) - the user will become educated to press OK on popups even more often - wild workarounds are created (base64 encode the parameter instead passing it clear-text) to avoid patented code That last point is not written directly in the msdn document, but I read between the lines this will be the preferred workaround. Isn't that nicely? Rainer _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
