EU software patent law faces axe 813

I don't see where it removes the freedom of the users and developers in any way, shape, or form. You are being intellectually dishonest to buttert that is the case, Kier. You may fool the real rubes who cannot parse a sentence, but the facts remain. Nothing that I can do with a piece of Free (as in the definition from Stallman) code in anyway restricts what you can do with it now or in the future.

The GPL is cleverly designed so that the FSF can forcibly take your innovations away from you if they were made on top of something that had a GPL license. That is fine for the freeloaders, since they get to load up on even better stuff, but it is not so free for the developer who has no choice in whether or not to give away his invention. He must give it away in exchange for whatever education he may have received from looking at the original code.

Who cares what the users do? The GPL restricts what the developers may do and that is what is dangerous. You will eventually force most competent designers out of the community.