Perhaps I'm full of shit, but in addition to the arguments Chad makes (which make sense to me, and I'd be interested to hear Lawrence Walters response), I'm appalled that Walters is charging $400 for a CGI script so simple a 5th grader could write it and some boilerplate text.

I mean, I understand the idea of intellectual property and patents, but the birthdate verifier, in addition to being a misnomer, is a crock. There are many, many more inventions that are far more real and substantive that have been donated to the open source movement, and this seems like nothing more than greed. And if somebody can prove that the Budwiser thing was there before Walters filed his patent, then there's prior art, and his patent will be declined...

If he was charging $25 or even $100, I'd say that would be reasonable... but by charging $400, what he's succeeded in doing is ensuring that I'll never be a client of his. If it's $400 for that, I shudder to think what it costs for, say, a letter to a vendor that requires some actual thought and effort.