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At the OSDL Linux Summit, Linux founder Linus Torvalds discussed his thoughts towards software patents and whether or not they have actual use.

Other open source proponents joined Torvalds in lashing out at patents and in a vicarious manner, companies that supports them (Microsoft). ZDNet reports:

"Are software patents useful? That's pretty clearly not the case. Software patents are clearly a problem," Torvalds said at the OSDL Linux Summit here.

Torvalds wasn't alone in his opinion. He was joined in a panel discussion by Brian Behlendorf, a co-founder of the Apache Web server software, and Mitch Kapor, chairman of the Mozilla Foundation and the Open Source Applications Foundation.

Behlendorf said the way to rebut the argument that software patents provide an incentive for innovation and research investment is to imagine the world without them.

"If you could not patent software algorithms or ideas, how much of the money spent on writing software would go away? How much innovation would disappear? How much investment in that innovation would disappear? I don't think any would disappear," Behlendorf said.

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