A Red Hat executive speaking at the MySQL Users Conference 2005 event in California on Tuesday heaped scorn on the issuance of software patents, saying they stifle innovation.
The executive, Michael Tiemann, vice president of open source affairs at Red Hat, also criticised Microsoft’s “Shared Source” approach to open source. The Shared Source programme lets users look at code but not modify it, he says.
Panning patents, Tiemann describes them as a challenge to enabling massive change.
“Every time a software patent blooms, it’s a promise to cease innovation in that space for 20 years,” Tiemann says.
Link: ComputerWorld NZ
