Open/Free Licenses (was: propose: `cypherpunks license' (Re: Wanted: Twofish source code))

[Tyler Close]

Feel free to ignore this, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to ask.

What sort of software things are patentable? What is being patented in E?
Is it the language syntax? In all of the discussion, everyone has been
freely and openly taking ideas from other languages. Does this really
qualify as a new creation?

All of this legal stuff has always seemed very dark and mysterious to me.
Maybe one of you could show me the light.

ciao,
Tyler