> _used to_. There is now an entire profession of writing patents in such
> a way that even when they expire you cannot possibly reconstruct what they
> were on about in full.
Isn't that the same technique used to write software licenses?
Less a license, more a store of legal ammunition.
> In the current world trade secrets are less evil than patents. If
> someone discovers something clever and patents it then they get a
> little piece of paper granting them monopoly power. These are then
> traded to create a little cabal of vendors who 'compete' in a very
> minimal fashion and lock the entire market down while ripping
> customers off
Basically this is real competition. If you can figure out how
company A did something, you are free to copy or innovate. If you
copy, you are unlikely to unseat them without resorting to illegal
tactics like dumping, etc. Your best choice is to innovate something
better, and that is far more beneficial to the market.
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