I'm no big fan of software patents, nor of blatant patent trolls, but I think that anyone who wants to gripe about the patent system needs to address the issue of companies like TiVo. TiVo invented a wonderful new kind of product, brought it to market -- and has never been able to make a profit, because it was lots of work to grow the market for a radically new kind of product, and so most of the market growth came from cable companies bundling similar products. Products that weren't licensed from TiVo, but were simply ripped off of their designs.
I'm still a happy user of the TiVo that I bought five or six years ago. (I'm going to have to decide what to do about this new-fangled HD television thing, though.)
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 6.9 ms ] threadI'm still a happy user of the TiVo that I bought five or six years ago. (I'm going to have to decide what to do about this new-fangled HD television thing, though.)