Quote Originally Posted by garbage
what does this actually mean for open source specifically? in what way does it damage open source software which uses unique technology?
Patents are not like copyright, your software might be illegal even if you have written everything yoursellf without looking at anyone else's code. And software patents in particular tend to be very broad (not all of them of course but a substantial portion of them) so there's a good chance there is no way to work around some of them for some particular task.
The show is not over until the fat lady sings and at the moment she is only clearing her throat. The next step is that the directive proposal will go back to the parliament for a second reading. The members of the new parliament will be elected on the 10 - 13 of June (only one day but it varies by country, check yours). If you are a citizen in an EU member state, old enough to vote, and care about the future of open source software PLEASE find yourself a candidate who opposes sw-patents and VOTE for him/her !!