>     Surely if you really wan't the code you can get it in a patent
>     application.
>
> Software is not patentable, in general.

This is the way it should be, unfortunately it is not true.  IBM holds
the patent for cut and paste, they just don't enforce it.  There is now
a group of lawyers in DC whose sole business is buying software patents
and searching out companies who have inadvertantly violated them, very
easy to do when many of the things patented are pretty basic.  Just FYI,
the RSA algorithm which allows for public key cryptography is not only
patented, but the patent has been upheld for similar formulas, EG (I think
its EG, anyway) if you come up with another formula for public key
cryptography you are violating RSA Inc's patent.

For more info check out: http://www.lpf.org

This is the league for programming freedom, which has the defeat of
software patents as its main agenda.

Roger