1.	So here's what I want to say to Stephen King.
2.	Mr. King, I've read every one of your books, paid for them of course, and I would happily buy this one, especially because it could help the Internet. But it's a shame that that you took this risk on behalf of the Internet (what if it fails?) and didn't check out who you're partnering with. I can't give money to Amazon and keep a clear conscience. I want you to understand why, because I think, as an avid reader of your books, that you would care if you knew.
3.	I'm a commercial software developer and a writer. I enjoy the privilege of free speech in my writing that I don't enjoy in my software. If Bezos has a patent on something that I need to make my software work, I'm out of luck. He owns the idea. Until recently this was *not* the way it worked in software, but the US Patent and Trademark Office started issuing patents covering very basic ideas that take little or no R&D, they're so obvious.
4.	The Internet which you and I use was built out of an open sharing of ideas. By erecting barriers, as Amazon has, and being aggressive about it, they are milking a cash cow they didn't create.
5.	To put it in analogous terms for writers, imagine if you couldn't write a story because Dean Koontz had already written it. What if the idea were as basic as Boy Meets Girl? That's what's going on in another creative space, software.
6.	Writers have a better ethic, only steal from the best. We want the same ethic in software, we used to have it. Now our art is becoming the province of lawyers and profiteers like Bezos.
7.	Bezos is especially horrific because he uses his patents as a competitive weapon. The invasion of a new kind of monster. Driven by greed, he destroys the best hope of freedom for mankind. Naive author walks into a hornet's nest. Does he tell the true story?
8.	Dave Winer