Software patenting has lead to the creation of a defacto IT cartel.

I know little about tech so I can't really speak to this but it seems due to control of patents big companies hold control over all future innovation and can quash any start-up competitors. Read about it here.

thanks jonny

Intellectual Property Laws are broken!

Basically a man has trademarked the word "Edge" and uses that trademark to earn a living suing and intimidating people who make games with the word Edge in them. He has gotten really quite wealth from doing so. However EA, a massive games development company, have gotten sick of his shit and are suing to have his trademark nullified. He has of course counter-sued with the intent of halting EA's suit until his is resolved. Details here: here.

Just FYI but IP laws are utterly utterly terrible in every way and in every aspect they're applied.