There are people on both sides of the fence about whether patents are good for software and both sides have a good argument.
The biggest reason I think that they are good is because they protect new ideas and help set a higher standard for some programs.
With all the free software out there if there was no patents to protect the ideas of some companies and individuals then everyone
would be able to make the same level of software. This would hurt profits for companies and force beginners to have much more complex
software then they need. A down side to software patents is that they do not carry over from country to country. This is very problematic
for companies that produce things like movies and music that are shown globally. They are forced to apply for patents in all of the
different countries which is time consuming and expensive.
I think that there should be some form of global patent system developed to help protect new developments. I understand that this
is asking a lot and would not be easy but it could be started on a smaller scale. If all of the superpower ( U.S., Great Britain, Russia, etc.)
came together to discuss some sort of broad standard. Countries that do not recognize intelectual property would not be included
because they have different standards then the more developed countries. These are also the countries that have high piracy rates
because they don't have significant software industries. Over all I think that patents for softwear are a good thing I just think
that they need to reinforced and recognized more globally.