[Lancaster] software patents again

[martyn@22balmoralroad.net]

I thought I would just write a little E-mail to the list regarding a point
I have been thinking about regarding the software patents (sorry if you
are just plain not interested):

Software patents could either make it impossible/uneconomic to attempt to
duplicate or at the best greatly increase the cost of duplicating the
patented ideas. Either way this is likely to increase the cost of buying
software which has been patented or create sole providers of certain
software functionality.

However, currently if a fault/bug in software causes loss of earnings etc,
one would be in a very week position to sue etc. If a provider is to
become effectively an elite provider of a concept, would it not only be
fair if they became a little more accountable considering this gain in
power? This seems fair to me, but how many software providers would like
that?

Martyn