Yet another person quoted that has not heard of the companies that are using OSS to spur competition rather than hinder it…

The open-source movement can stifle innovation, SAP executive Shai Agassi reportedly said in a speech this week, where he obliquely compared the movement to socialism.
SAP.

“Intellectual property (IP) socialism is the worst that can happen to any IP-based society,” he was quoted saying by VNUNet. “And we are an IP-based society. If there is no way to protect IP, there is no reason to invest in IP.”

The sentiment isn’t uncommon in proprietary software circles, and has raised the hackles of many in the open-source movement. And while Agassi’s quote wasn’t quite as inflammatory as Bill Gates’ communist comment, it was enough to heat up the blogosphere. [Read the rest]