An open letter from Matthew Szulik [LWN.net]

Here is an open letter from Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik. "Consistent with Red Hat's core values--Freedom, Commitment, Courage and Accountability--Red Hat's software development community takes valid intellectual property rights seriously. We respect and take effort to maintain the legal and technical integrity of valid intellectual property, including patents, copyright and trademark. When the integrity of the Red Hat brand is publicly called into question, we will defend the use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux by our customers."

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An open letter from Matthew Szulik

Posted May 19, 2003 22:52 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

An open reply to Matthew Szulik.

Hello,
I'm a european who is trying to prevent the adoption of software patents by the EU. My employer doesn't care about this issue so I have to fund my travels out of my own pocket and use up my holidays to give talks on the matter.

Why have the distros done nothing about this issue? You all have cash and legal departments? Cash may be tight but I bet you have more than I do. Surely software patents would greatly affect companies that are distributing up to 4,000 applications?

It's not too late, the vote isn't until June 18th. You can make your voice heard. Right now, the MEPs who will vote on this issue don't know much about it. If you can offer some assistance, please do. If you will not offer assistence, I'd like an explanation because I can't understand your lack of action.

Note: this is not levelled purely at RedHat, I recognise that RedHat are the most consistantly pro-FreeSoftware Commercial Distro out there. This is a serious question though.

Ciaran O'Riordan