Slashdot Mirror
Patent Troll Bill Clears House With Huge Majority
snydeq writes "The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Innovation Act, dealing trolls a severe blow despite opposition from universities looking to protect patents, InfoWorld's Simon Phipps reports. The act cleared the House of Representatives with an overwhelming majority of 325 to 91 despite opposition from the organizations most likely to feed new patents to the trolls. 'So bravo to the Innovation Act. It's far from perfect, as the EFF documents and as I commented before the holiday. But it's a step in the right direction, and the tidal surge of support it's seeing suggests legislators' appetite for proper patent reform is finally growing strong enough for them to contemplate substantial change.'"
The semicolon in your signature does not belong where you placed it. Semicolons are used either to separate independent clauses or as list separators when the list elements contain internal commas, which would otherwise be confusing. The text following your semicolon is not an independent clause. The semicolon could replace the comma between "Fanny Bottom" and "then". Alternatively, you could forego the semicolon completely and just use a period in the same location.
I can't tell whether it is the misplaced semicolon or the general inanity of your signature that I find more annoying.
Ta-ta for now!