Lots o’ folks are crowing about patents, especially with the call to boycott Amazon.com. My feelings about patents have always been the same (patent law absolutely needs to be altered to deal with the nature of software development), but my attitude has shifted a little. When I was at Lotus, I hoped they would lose their user interface suit against Borland. At GRiD, I proudly displayed my LPF “Apple as a snake” button in my cube. At Brio Technology, I declined to be listed as an inventor on a patent, thereby horrifying a lawyer acquaintance of mine who felt I was breaking the law (the rule of thumb is if you’ve touched the code at all, you’re on the patent), stupefying a few friends, and missing out on a resume enhancer. My current philosophy is that if someone wants to use the law to their advantage, I’m not going to penalize them for it (ergo, I’m not boycotting Amazon). But I still don’t feel right taking advantage of those laws myself. To each his or her own.