Earlier quoted context omitted.
In another post, I'm also trying to compare the similarities of the two. The problem I see is that they both, especially when used 'improperly', prevent people from innovate. To me it looks like software improves also by recycling and improving existing concepts so, when it comes to software, patent owners eventually manage to raise some money, but that's all. They cause much greater damage to the rest of us by stopp…
Also, the problem with copyrights disappearing regarding software, is that it may not help innovation much. Without copyright we still don't get source, and things that were protected by copyright are just now protected by secrecy. I imagine a lot of proprietary software would just continue the push into software as a service, with large blocks of important code never leaving the walls of the data center.
It may not be ultimately bad. But I feel it's a fair bit less obvious than patents.