Software is a special purpose machine says microsoft

In Microsofts brief to the Supreme Court in the Bilski case, Microsoft tries to duck the nonpateneable abstracts of data processing by arguing that software configures PC into a specific machine. Groklaw member PoIR makes a good case as to why this reasoning is wrong.

The main objections are well put:

• The Brief fails to mention the Turing machine in the evolution of general purpose computing
• The focus is on the special purpose machine ENIAC not the general purpose machine we call PC
• Modern day computing is nowhere near industrial age computers as described in the brief