“but I guess IBM is building up quite a case that software patents are absurd.”

It makes no difference. Big corporations always get their way.

While the Internet is generally good I think one problem with it (and I’m guilty of it too) is that it makes people lazy. People think that they can encourage the government to act in their interest by simply making a comment on a blog. Lobbyists, on the other hand, actually GO TO congress and congressmen and demands. Back in the days people would actually MARCH TO congress and overwhelm it with people until congress gave in. They would actually go out and protest and they would overwhelm the streets, etc… Now they think that posting on a blog is a protest and of course congress favors the lobbyists, who are at congress and talking with the congressmen in person, over some comments from people who can’t be bothered to go to congress. Also going to congress is something that costs the economy, people deviate from their work to protest congress and that causes economic harm (ie: less tax revenue for the government for one thing), so congress is much more likely to listen. Whereas posting on the Internet is often done on peoples spare time, no economic harm so congress could care less.

Same thing, people now send E – Mails, which cost virtually nothing whereas people used to send actual letters, which costs resources that could better be used for something else and so it’s a waste of economic resources for people to send letters (though it’s minor). Also E – Mails are much easier to delete and ignore whereas physical letters clog up our postal service and must be disposed of physically.