Source code and patents: both or neither

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NewsFactor Network writes “A lot of people like open source and hate software patents. They want Microsoft to release its source code and stop applying for patents. Unfortunately, if they want the source code, they are going to have to put up with the patents. When companies copyright their code, they do not care so much about the code itself as they do about the algorithms and data structures used. But since copyright protects only the expression of an idea, not the idea itself, that intellectual property is not protected by copyright.”