Joel Spolsky's editorial on patent trolls is fabulous. As he points out, the developers who pay relatively small sums to make patent trolls just go away are part of the problem, and complicit in the next round of extortion. Paying mobsters keeps them viable, and able to attack new victims:
In the face of organized crime, civilized people don't pay up. When you pay up, you're funding the criminals, which makes you complicit in their next attacks. I know, you're just trying to write a little app for the iPhone with in-app purchases, and you didn't ask for this fight to be yours, but if you pay the trolls, giving them money and comfort to go after the next round of indie developers, you're not just being "pragmatic," you have actually gone over to the dark side. Sorry. Life is a bit hard sometimes, and sometimes you have to step up and fight fights that you never signed up for.
Civilized people don't pay up. They band together, and fight, and eliminate the problem. The EFF is launching a major initiative to reform the patent system. At Stack Exchange, we're trying to help with Ask Patents, which will hopefully block a few bad patents before they get issued.
The Application Developers Alliance (of which I am currently serving as the chairman of the board) is also getting involved with a series of Developer Patent Summits, a nationwide tour of 15 cities, which will kick off a long term program to band together to fight patent trolls. Come to the summit in your city—I'll be at the San Francisco event on April 9th—and find out what you can do to help.
(via Copyfight)
