I guess you can look at it that way. But the &quot;rent&quot; that Uber and AirBnB are demanding, is actually from a very tangible service that they provide: Uber, for finding a cab, AirBnB, for finding a place to live. I would gladly pay this &quot;rent&quot; to make use of their service.<p>Software patents on the other hand, don&#x27;t seem to do anyone a service, and yet we have to pay a price for them.