Great news! The European Parliament rejected the SWPAT directive. No fuzzyness with amendments, but a straight no. For the full story, see the report on the FFII site.
Let’s not become complacent though…. these things don’t just die. They keep coming back like a bad cold.
No harmonization of software patent law in Europe; the old practices remain. It is not the best outcome in my opinion though it could likely have been worse and I’m happy it didn’t. But I refuse celebrating the fact that nothing has changed.