[Fsf-friends] "Software-Patents" in Europe: The threat prevails

[Mayank Sharma]

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 Frederick Noronha(FN) wrote :

"Software-Patents" in Europe: The threat prevails
>
>Soon the European  Parliament and the  Council of  Ministers will     >againdecide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called "software >patents" in Europe, which are already used by large companies in other >countries to put competitors out of business. This can lead to the    >termination of manysoftware projects such as KNOPPIX, at least within >Europe, 
>
<snip>
This is very disturbing (again). But I am a little unclear on what the end result might be. Maybe Mahesh could clear up.

a) What's the status of India and Software Patents?
b) Is Software Patent a geographical bounbdary bound thing? I mean would Klaus be able to host Knoppix on (say) an Indian server and distribute here? 
c) Would he be violating patents if he continues development? I mean would no EU citizen be able to contribute to FLOSS projects?
d) How can people be so stupid as to grant patent on things that are so essential to computing? 

I have gone through the docs at http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html but couldn't find ready answers to the questions I had. Answers in the form of text or URLs welcome.

Mayank