Patent Law - Hold on, it's not as bad as it sounds. The only people inconvenienced will be users and developers in the US and countries with identical patent laws re software (a decreasing minority of computer users, but still significant of course). Such patents are currently illegal in the UK and many other countries so the software can be developed and used freely.
The UK response to a recent initiative to re-look at software patents was firmly negative, and there is a Europe-wide campaigning body to ensure that it doesn't happen "by accident".
Slashdot Mirror
"Europe" won't be doing anything in a hurry: the responsibility lies with the EPO which has its own legislative and executive bodies, not the EU, even though it is some people in the EU Commission which are giving us some concern. Patents are governed by international treaties, and remember it takes decades to change treaties. The WTO's agenda is set years in advance and software patents are very low on the priority list. For the current proposals see the report "Does the TRIPS Agreement require all member's rules on protection of intellectual property to be identical?" for an explanation.
The UK response to a recent initiative to re-look at software patents was firmly negative, and there is a Europe-wide campaigning body to ensure that it doesn't happen "by accident".