Tresy,

  On IP and "society benefits, and few businesses profited, so what?"

I think you miss the more general point.  Taxpayers paid for the development
of the technology, and then had to pay inflated prices when the technology
they paid for was turned over to private hands without the consent of the
funders.   If you were asked to do the same thing, but with a neighbor or
the local mechanic, you'd be outraged: Yeah, I built what you asked me to
and paid me to, but then I gave it to Mega-Mart and you gotta pay again.
Who got hurt?  Surely not the computer business execs as they laughed their
way to the bank.

paul