[vox] Political Question

[Robert G. Scofield]

Here is a statement from someone in Australia who opposed the U.S. - 
Australia free trade agreement:

"America's patent laws have forced significant
> aspects of Open Source 
> activity to relocate to Europe and Asia, and we
> should not be going down 
> that route."

The author previously stated that 8% of all open source developers are Australian.  The author's concern is with the Australian IT industry.

I'm trying to make sense of this.  My first question is have U.S. patent laws forced significant aspects of open source activity to Europe and Asia?  I don't see how open source activity can get pushed from one place to another.

My second question is how can the Australian IT industry be threatend by the removal of the open source movement to Europe and Asia.  Why wouldn't the IT industry be glad to get rid of open source altogether?

I know that some companies benefit from open source; like IBM and Sun.  But I don't know enough about the industry to make sense of the author's argument.  Can someone enlighten me?

Bob