Unfortunately, there is no precedent; nothing before has ever fit under both systems, so my contention that it should only work under one or the other is more wishful-thinking then legal doctrine; up to this point it's simply been the way things work, not the deliberate partitioning of the courts, that has caused the strict dichotomy.
However, if there are people who percieve this double-restriction as a problem, this might help awaken them to the issues, and hopefully we find that code lives solely under copyright law. This ruling might serve as a weapon, but we can't wait for it to do something; we really need to figure out a way of pushing this issue somehow. In the meantime, software will hold the status of "most restricted expression/machines on the planet."
Later I realized that you could already copyright code, which is to say, the law of the land has already recognized it as expression for a long time. (You can't copyright the workings of a machine, only pantent.) So I fear that, beyond sending a wake-up call to the lawyers and lawmakers that we have a problem, there's no real reason to believe that this alone will cause any reversal of software's unique position of being the only thing I know of that is currently restricted by both patents and copyrights. (Anybody who can come up with something else similarly restricted please let me know.)
Also, They Fight for Citizen's Privacy: "Privacy commissioners from every country but the United States convene on a panel to discuss their respective issues. Why not the United States? It doesn't have a commissioner."
This is the only practical answer. Reform can and should be made to the system itself, but the tech industry can't wait that many years. Setting up something like this is a Good Idea.
the Gilmore Patent License: "Gilmore wants create what amounst to a pool of patents where the ideas are freely shared, and to do it under terms that mimic the GNU GPL."
That means I can dynamically push out updates and they can immediately take effect, such as favorites integration. I've got some ideas on how to do it, but I need to play around first, see what works and what's best. I can tell you this: it WILL be taking advantage of the fact that your favorites list is NOT private; there's no (good!) way I could verify you anyhow.
Intriguing Netscape observation: When you put the Weblogs.com thing in your sidebar, you aren't downloading anything to your computer and storing it permenantly on your hard drive. You always load it from the server where it lives.
Joel on Software is basically writing a book on creating software. If you're into software, you need to be reading this site.