Exactly, and Stallman's proposal represents a viable path forward to effectively abolish software patents. It avoids the messiness of invalidating existing pat

Exactly, and Stallman's proposal represents a viable path forward to effectively abolish software patents. It avoids the messiness of invalidating existing patents or determining during patent examination which patents are for software and which patents are for hardware. Effectively, it shifts that determination to the implementer. If I'm able to implement a patented idea in software, then it was a software patent. And I'm not infringing.