I love that The Economist is legitimizing Bitcoin for its subscribers - not that it needs legitimizing, but the authority of the mag is certainly welcome. Unfortunately, the part about patenting is a downer. If anyone knows any lawyer in these parts, please ask him/her to look at the decision to refuse a patent for the first commercial waterbed.

Fun Fact: The patent was denied because the judge decided that the idea was in the public domain - because Robert A. Heinlein described one in detail in his novel Stranger In A Strange Land! Troof. :)