And information (and software) could use matter or energy as medium for storage and transfer; e.g storing that python function as carbon traces on a piece of paper or transmitting it with photons through the fiber optic line.

For the lack of a better word, information (and software) is culture while matter and energy (carbon on paper, photons) are nature.

What information does not require matter?

An electromagnetic signal traveling through space.

Photons are matter, IMHO.

Photons lack mass. They don't meet the definition of matter.