It's like saying, this anarchist mob isn't very organized. Well, yeah.
That being said, I agree with Meetup guy that sites like Kickstarter are exactly the kind of peer-2-peer marketplace that could help reshape our economy and empower the 99%.
As per usual, these companies don't share a single line of code, and Kickstarter was in business for years before this guy's patent was even approved.
But somehow, he can claim to have invented crowdfunding for creative projects -- USING A COMPUTER.
BS.
It's my fervent opinion that rent-seeking behavior and similar economic dysfunction is one of chief underlying problems with economy and with society as a whole. OWS isn't objecting to rich people in general - just to rich people whose modus operandi is to drain resources from everybody while never giving any back. There's no thought for the larger consequences, and the law permits it only because most people have so far been more or less well enough off that they don't need to bother with it.
It's all coming to a head now, though. Or so I damn well hope.
I agree wholeheartedly with your bitterness here; this is precisely my beef with the patent system as misapplied to software - but the truth of the matter is that mechanisms like Kickstarter would be a great way out of our societal bind, while their actual success makes them a target for leeches.