Jonathan Schwartz's apologia for Sun's recent settlement of patent litigation brought against Sun by Kodak is must-reading. He reflects on the indispensability of patent protection to the IT industry, but also on its perils and weaknesses (defending patent infringement claims to a Rochester, NY jury, Kodak's home, did not exactly make Sun optimistic). He argues for the need for software patentability, but that systemic changes are needed. Finally, he has some choice words on manipulation of the open source community. Very good reading.