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But keep in mind, the patent trolling industry can't take all the money, or there wouldn't be any more developers to sue. In this case, the parasite methaphor

by geebee 15y ago

But keep in mind, the patent trolling industry can't take all the money, or there wouldn't be any more developers to sue. In this case, the parasite methaphor really is apt - if a parasite completely wipes out the host species, then the parasite goes extinct as well. So yeah, the situation isn't impossible, because patent trolls need to keep the success rate high enough that new software entrepreneurs are tempted to try.

rbarooah 15y ago
The trolls could easily wipe out all indie developers without any problems, because they'd still have the large corporations to feed off.
- geebee 15y ago
  True, and I suppose there's no reason to assume patent trolls will behave rationally as a group.
  - rbarooah 15y ago
    Right - there's probably nothing to stop a 'tragedy of the commons' occurring, and money is fungible so they can just do something else with it when the cash cow dies.