[gnaritas]

> 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.

[joe_the_user]

Uh,

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.