Very sad. My sympathies tilly. I hope, and want to be confident that things will work out just fine for you and your family. My knee-jerk reaction is that your employer is out of their collective minds and that they deserve no support, or help, in understanding what they've done--, and achieved--.

I'm relatively new to PM, but in that short time, the obvious depth of knowledge in your posts has been invaluable to me. Not that I can speak for anyone else really, but it's obvious from the chatter in CB, from the replies to this post, and the noise on /., that you are respected, valued and cared about.

If fighting these heathens is what you choose, or if ducking and blowing out of there is your choice, you have my support. If you need anything that I can offer, please let me know. Likewise, it looks like any number of us can and will rally to help so don't hesitate.

I don't know if it's an issue the EFF is interested in, but I have emailed them a link to this thread.

Update: EFF has replied that "Although it's an issue that concerns us here at EFF, I'm afraid we simply don't have the bandwidth to put it on the front burner at this time (between suing ICANN, defending against Hollywood, and fighting the SSSCA, we've got our hands full)." and, "You may want to contact the Free Software Foundation to inquire what resources they have to offer to help open source programmers negotiate with their employers".