• Wired, Thursday, May 17, 2007 10:32 AM

As long as it doesn't involve them, technology industry executives tend to agree that the U.S. patent system sucks. Across the Web, copyright law is being challenged: the music and movie industries continue to lose the piracy war against peer-to-peer file-sharing programs, Web radio is collectively fighting back against a recent copyright royalty hike, and open source software is preparing for perhaps the biggest patent fight of them all, against Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft's announcement that free software such as Linux infringes on some 235 of its patents has caused nothing short of an uproar across the tech world.

Wired, a publication which caters specifically to these folks, says, "A system that was created to protect invention has warped into a heavy drag on innovation in America." In light of that statement, the publication asked its readers to suggest and then rank creative weighs to fix U.S. patent law. The mag sent the most popular ideas to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, which began working on patent-reform legislation yesterday. The House committee agreed to examine the suggestions.

Read the whole story at Wired »