One thing I do feel pretty certain of is that if you're against software patents, you're against patents in general. Gradually our machines consist more and more of software. Things that used to be done with levers and cams and gears are now done with loops and trees and closures. There's nothing special about physical embodiments of control systems that should make them patentable, and the software equivalent not.
I agree. I just think this is a strong argument against all patents rather than an argument for patents. The march of information technology makes boundaries fuzzier and fuzzier and we have to think what will happen at the limit of this process. The boundaries between algorithms and information expressions becomes fuzzy within a world of pure information. And ultimately, either we will be in a position where all information, all expression, is a priori owned by one or another entities or we'll be in a position where all information is free (sorry about the cliche being true..). I'd rather be in the latter world.
> There's nothing special about physical embodiments of control systems that should make them patentable, and the software equivalent not.
I think he's wrong, there is something special, the rate of innovation, and the cost of both change and the the initial barrier to entry. Physical machine are generally much more expensive to create, change, and startup a business with so granting the patent holder some limited monopoly on the invention makes sense. With software, not so much.
This may be true currently but point I agree with PG on is that things are moving towards a situation where this will no longer be true. And the movement is getting faster and faster. If the law is formulated merely on how things are now, it will become obsolete just when it can do the most damage.