Reading answers to this question - and many other discussions of software patents - it seems that most of us as programmers feel that software patents are a bad idea. At the same time we are in the group most likely to lose out if our work is copied or stolen.

So what level of Intellectual Property Protection does code and software need? Is copyright sufficient? Are patents necessary? As software is neither a physical object nor simple text, should we be thinking of a third path that falls somewhere between the two? Do we need any protection at all? If you had the facility to set up the law for this, what would you choose?