Code is not physical property

Pursuant to this case, should code be patented or copyrighted? I don't know the answer, but I can tell you preserving code as a trade secret contributed to Goldman effectively losing this case.

The problem with patenting or copyrighting code is that copy-pasting already optimized pieces of code is common practice for building your program. Having to do everything from scratch each time while having to make small changes so it doesn't step into a patent would be annoying and a hindrance to the work of programmers.