Z:gnu-www-ja-why-audio-format-matters--2e23e5-The harm here goes deeper than/en

The harm here goes deeper than just the danger to you. A software patent grants one party the exclusive right to use a certain mathematical fact. This right can then be bought and sold, even litigated over like a piece of property, and you can never predict what a new owner might do with it. This is not just an abstract possibility: MP3 patents have been the subject of multiple lawsuits, with damages totalling more than a billion dollars.