"This verdict has been widely publicized as a big defeat for Linux."

Ho humm. If anything, this verdict is a big defeat for the US legal system. Personally, I don't give a rodent's bottom for some runaway American lawyers. Let's just hope the EU eventually stops caving in to US demands, so that the problem is eventually contained safely to North America. When the first blue chip corporation then migrates to Europe so that it can conduct business unfestered by that kind of crap, I'm sure the market will eventually sort out the patent issue for good.

There have been some interesting analyses about what happens to capitalism in its late state (most of them turned out to be wrong), but I wonder: has anybody ever projected what will happen to a constitutional state in this very advanced state of alienation? The idea makes me shiver...