I understand your feeling of helplessness, but supporting the people that stand up and fight against these patent trolls seems like a good place to start.
Signing the petition costs nothing, and there's a chance that it could have a real and lasting impact on the patent system.
Donating to Austin Meyer's legal defence fund is much cheaper—both financially and emotionally—than having to defend against a patent troll yourself at some stage in the future.
I didn't see a link to donate. Wouldn't it be better for the FSF to create a generic fund that agressively went after these trolls? I'd give a couple hundred dollars a year.
With limited resources, we're better off investing in a wholesale overhaul of the patent system, compared to fighting one patent troll after another. The reason? After we've spent millions fighting patent trolls, we will face a new generation of trolls who have learned valuable lessons from the methods we used in the past.
Signing the petition costs nothing, and there's a chance that it could have a real and lasting impact on the patent system.
Donating to Austin Meyer's legal defence fund is much cheaper—both financially and emotionally—than having to defend against a patent troll yourself at some stage in the future.