[Fsfe-ie] Irish Software Assoc-"open source" stifling innovation

[Teresa Hackett]

On Friday 18 March the Irish Times had a special 8-page supplement 
"Microsoft 20 years investing in Ireland".

Interesting snippets include a piece by Tom Kitt, Minister for the 
Information Society.

"Microsoft has been one of the most innovative companies in the world 
and has a long track record over several decades of creating new product 
markets. The EU has to be open to allowing such innovation in Europe. 
Ireland will continue to argue at EU level, based on the solid evidence 
of our successful economy, that the Community must look at its rules on 
innovation and intellectual property rights to ensure they encourage 
risk taking in Europe and growth in the IT industry in the EU and around 
the globe".

Interview with Cathal Friel, chairman of the Irish Software Association, 
an industry representative body affiliated to IBEC.

"He also noted that Open Source software - which is developed by large 
communities of programmers and distributed for free or at low cost - is 
also going to have an effect on the software market. While Friel 
believes Open Source itself has a limited business model - "at the end 
of the day, there's nothing but services to sell" - it is nonetheless 
becoming more pervasive and is "a fact of life" for more traditional 
software companies. He believes the Open Source movement is actually 
stifling innovation, because fewer programmers will develop software 
without the financial incentive of success".