That is because IT is more on the side of 'art' and 'open creativity' than pharmaceuticals which require a lot of background knowledge, far more rigorous testing and standards, and are a much more deadly legal minefield. Both require technical skills in a way, though alot of the pharmaceutical founders barely spend any time in the actual lab. Not to mention the average cost in R&D to launch ONE pharmaceutical product is $500M, meaning you need business skill. (And a patent to earn back your research money!)
I agree the example is clumsy because people will find it hard in that example to imagine why a novel is patentable (because it is obviously not in our world, ironically lacking the criteria of being "novel"!)
I felt like notch matured a while ago but this is a surprisingly childish rant from him, i honestly felt it was a bit below him. He has a point, a valid point, but he has not conveyed it very well, and has caused collatoral damage to other valid fields for patents in the process of criticizing software patents.
I think that whilst notch has raised some valid points, he has really written an argument based on half the picture. I believe that maybe notch should read up more on criteria of patentability, other patent areas, and the feasibility of having everything 'funded by government' and perhaps share some of that too.
I agree that something like a software patent may be a bad idea, but you have to realise that a lot of people read your stuff and get influenced by this 'half of the patent picture' and then leave with the wrong idea and start criticising legitimate patent areas.
For example: Company A spends $200M of investors money finding a new anti-depressant. Ok so they invested all of this money, now they need to spend 8 years proving to the FDA that it is safe to use, there goes another $300M. 'Generic pharmacies inc' says hey, thanks for doing all that work, now we can manufacture that drug in our factory for 1c/pill and make a little bit of money, good luck recouping your research money because we just got all the cheap sales. Company A goes bankrupt, the investors lose their money. Company B and C notice this industry is poor for research, and decide never to spend that money finding an anti brain-tumor agent.
However, if company A had patented their idea, then they will have around 10-15 years of patent-protected time (because they have to patent before divulging it, and by the time you get through trials and approval you can often have just a few years left) to sell their drug at a price where they can recoup their $500M, and invest in more bigger and better research.
Meanwhile, whilst patented, other companies can see that research and build upon it with their own research - they just cant rip them off with the money they are owed in that time by selling it without permission. If they really want to sell it, they can ask the company to license it to them, and pay royalties. Later, the patent expires, as all of them do, and then generic company is free to manufacture it without paying the inventor a cent.
Is this not a valid reason for patents? I'm sorry notch but you cant copyright a pill, even though that copyright law may protect your own interests (minecraft)