Some months ago I rambled on about software patents and the very bad potential effects of such. The debate faded into the background for a while but never disappeared. Now it seems as though for the second time in a short space of time; the Irish presidency of the EU is foregoing in the opinion of the EU parliament and possibly going ahead with the software patent legislation. First our personal information is passed on to the US authorities with no respect for out privacy and against the EU parliament vote and now our opensource software comes under threat too. What next? source: NewsForge