in the latest absurdity to come from the US Patent Office, a company successfully received a patent for holding a "list of things" in a database. That means anyone else who holds a list in a database needs to license their technology. ie any list of anything.

it was actually granted in 2005 but this company has just now launched legal action against a whole bunch of mostly free websites that let people makes lists. Just incredible...

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/17/channel-intelligence-sues-just-about-everyone-who-offers-wishlists/