> One of his rationalizations, if he is ever bothered to make one, might be, "Well, if I wasn't doing this someone else would be." Of course, that is true.
Why would that be true? Nobody else is doing it at the scale of IV, despite nothing preventing it from happening. It's not because other people are capable of bad choices that you are excused for your own blunders. Ethics don't work that way.
The patent troll industry in aggregate last year collected around $22B in revenue. In aggregate it dwarves IV, although IV may be the biggest individual player. Legally-sanctioned evil on a giant scale...
Why would that be true? Nobody else is doing it at the scale of IV, despite nothing preventing it from happening. It's not because other people are capable of bad choices that you are excused for your own blunders. Ethics don't work that way.