Could Software patents be abolished?

According to this article over at The Inquirer, there’s two groups having hissy fits over the In re Bilski case. These two groups are the End Software Patents (ESP) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The case is set for a rehearing on May 8th 2008 in which may change the history of software patents. Previous court rulings have diminished some of the boundaries of what can and cannot be patent software wise. To my understanding, patent’s are exclusive rights on inventions or works for 20 years. Shouldn’t that include the hard work of programmers that developed certain techniques and algorithm’s of their software?