Exactly. It's confusing "Lettuce Harvesting Machine" with "Harvesting Lettuce Through Mechanical Means". One is a device that harvests lettuce, the other is patenting the IDEA of harvesting lettuce with a machine. When Edison's company patented the light bulb, they did so for a specific light bulb design. George Westinghouse's company came up with a new method of building a piece of glass and metal that made light with electricity. Further, Edison wasn't the first to come up with the idea of making light with electricity, that was the arc light. If the same logic that's being used with software patents today were applied to these men, the inventor of the arc light would have been able to sue both for violating his patent on "Generating Light With Electricity."

I've worked with a handful of LANs in small and large scale and I can't think of a single instance when the cable in the wall caused problems on its own. Jacks? Yes. Cut wires? Yes. Chewed wires (rodents)? Yes. Installed by old-school electricians who put staples every 3 feet? Yes.

Having a good supply of ~6' cables made up for end users who yank the connectors off or fold them over until the internal conductors break or cut them is a good idea, though. That tends to be where the most abuse is.

I do freelance IT along with other repair work for a handful of small businesses in a small town, who can't afford their own IT but need someone to hold their hands when something breaks or they need to upgrade. More often than not, I'll find unlicensed software on their computers of one source or another and most are fairly understanding when I explain to them what the situation is (half don't know what they've got installed, usually done by someone employee's college aged kids). The clients that are the worst offenders, though, are the people who should really know better: lawyers. Not only are the technology masters (at least they seem to think so, even though they're calling for help) but they have been the most difficult when I inform them that I won't help them violate their software licenses. You would think that people who are supposed to be well versed in the law would be understanding of my desire not to have some corporate lawyer unhinge his jaw and swallow my company whole, but that doesn't seem to enter their minds. When I'm faced with a similar situation to yours, I usually inform them that what they do when I'm not there is not my concern, but that I cannot help them break the law or offer support for their unlicensed software. I try to be polite as possible, but I have lost clients business because I refused to help them break the law. We do warranty and insurance work and I can't tell you how many times we've had someone in our shop yelling about how we were such a terrible repair shop because we wouldn't help them defraud their equipment manufacturer or insurance company.