This rings about as hollow as if it were Tim Cook complaining about closed ecosystems. Bezos likely realizes that as Amazon moves into making and selling mobile devices and tablets, they too will be targets for patent litigation.
If Richard Stallman yells that the patent system is broken and needs to be changed nobody is going to listen, of course he's going to say that, he's a zealot with no skin in the game, it costs him nothing to say that.
I think it's completely valid to play the game while working to change the rules for the better.
“Use what they give you,” Ender said. “If you’ve ever got an advantage over the enemy, use it.”
“Oh, I did,” said Slattery. He grinned. “I’m only fair-minded before and after battles.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click
Several organizations have boycotted Amazon for that:
(Disclaimer: my employer is also a member, and I approve, but play no part.)
The rest of the engineering community by and large doesn't understand what software folks are ranting about. People don't accidentally infringe on the OFDM patent, people don't accidentally come up with the same chemical formula for a drug. To them, people who oppose patents are in the same bucket as Chinese companies who rip off American technology--they want to copy other peoples' work for profit.
This is not to say that patent reform in the area of software isn't beneficial or desirable. But the attitude that anybody who opposes it won't listen to reason dramatically overstates the universality of the arguments and the consensus around the position.
But the message doesn't ring true if the messenger's actions contradict the message. If I come to you and yell "the building is burning down!!!" and then sit quietly at my desk to continue coding, do you seriously tell me that my actions do not affect how you interpret my message? Bezos could announce he is relinquishing and freely licensing the one-click patent today if he really believes patents hinder innovation and that is bad for society. Then his message would be consistent with his actions. If you don't like this as logic, consider it as an unavoidable fact of human psychology.
Bezos has the cash to play the game. And he had acces to it early enough (remember the one-click patent) to gain a monumental advantage. Relative to the other big players, Amazon has stayed on the sidelines.
Not to say Amazon is an angel that sets the standard for fairplay, but they definitely (? prove me wrong!) do not pursue patents to the extent of Microsoft, Apple, Google and others.
You can either call them naive for not playing, or you can accept that they may have set a better example.
They used what they had to great effect, the only effect patent battles since 201 have are huge law fees and huge costs for companies. So was Amazon right to use one-click back than? I don't know, but it served them in the long run. Does it serve Applesung if they prevent the sell of Applesung products in certain markets? I don't think so.
Based on this, yes Bezos is right that the system is broken, as broken as it was back in the ninties but today the associated risks grew higher from my point of view. Why? Because patents are strategic weapon which is now used tacticly, and that is always bad.