Software patents and FreeBSD

[R. Tyler Ballance]

Howdy,

     i'll be meeting tuesday with staffers for my congressman (since  
he's still in D.C.) to discuss software patents and the "evil" behind  
them. I've got a new perspective on the troubles they can cause given  
my Summer of Code project which is licensed under the APSL (http:// 
www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/) (my project: http:// 
wikitest.freebsd.org/moin.cgi/launchd)

What are some good points, on how software patents, could/have  
affected the FreeBSD project? I can make a case for how beneficial  
having something like FreeBSD has been for the I.T. industry, but i'd  
also like to be able to demonstrate the harm that software patents  
can cause to a large open source project like FreeBSD.

Cheers,

-R. Tyler Ballance