VentureBeat

Jim Clark, the founder of Web browser Netscape, has resigned as chairman of Redwood City photo printing company Shutterfly, citing securities regulations that have “gone too far.”

Clark held about 30 percent of the company’s shares when it went public in September, but Shutterfly’s technology has matured, and he’d been constrained by Sarbanes-Oxley securities law, he said, citing the reasons why he resigned:

“Sarbox (Sarbanes-Oxley) dictates that I not chair any committee due to the size of my holdings, not be on the compensation committee because of the loan I once made to the company, not be on the governance committee,” Clark wrote in a letter to Shutterfly executives.

“It even dictates that some other board member must carry out the perfunctory duties of the chairman,” he wrote in a letter dated Jan. 1. “What’s left is liability and constraints on stock transactions, neither of which excite me.”