Are process patents a spammers best friend?

Process patent fears are directly responsible, I claim, for six years of arrested progress in digital image formats. Paul Vixie, quoted in O'Reilly Radar, claims they're also responsible for the spam that's destroying email ...

O'Reilly Radar > Another War We're Not Winning: Us vs Spam

...every potential smtp improvement or replacement that could do anything to actually stop spam, has been systematically patented. the crap that's left isn't going to do any good. we're headed for walled gardens...

This seems credible to me. Process patents have a strangle hold on software development. I assume something will break them, but I don't know what.

In the meantime, I'll put spam into the same category as JPEG -- a consequence of a disastrous decision by the US congress to extend patent law into processes, and then to drastically underfund the patent office.