The problem is the patent system and their apparent working definition of patentability. When Amazon can patent one-click purchasing or whoever can patent in-app purchasing, the government's definition of patentability is severely broken. From what I can tell the patent office just googles the claim's buzzwords for hits prior to the filing date and if nothing is found the patent is granted. They don't even try to get into obviousness / novelty / subject matter.

Ultimately I guess it's an issue that directly affects very few people, and indirectly hits the software consumer in the form of slightly(?) increased prices and less feature availability.