I think it's not that Stallman has become more radical it's more that the mainstream of the free software community has shifted away from Stallman making him se

I think it's not that Stallman has become more radical it's more that the mainstream of the free software community has shifted away from Stallman making him seem more radical and more fundamentalist. Really he should have stepped out of the discussion about 10 years ago to make way for someone more pragmatic. The reality of the situation is that for the foreseeable future software patents are here to stay and the sooner the free software organizations get themselves involved in the committees that define things like media standards and start playing up the advantages of a "free" (as in software) implementations for everybody involved the sooner the damaging effects of software patents in these areas will be mitigated. Sadly with Stallman as a figurehead the Free Software community isn't in the same room as these discussions. In fact they aren't even in the same building. They are looked on as the crazy people on the streets with the "end of the world is nigh" flags. And that is the real tragedy of the whole affair.