Back to Search
Start Over
Openness, Open Source, and the Veil of Ignorance
- Source :
- Scotchmer, Suzanne. (2010). Openness, Open Source, and the Veil of Ignorance. Competition Policy Center. UC Berkeley: Competition Policy Center. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4d9052w7
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- Author(s): Scotchmer, Suzanne | Abstract: The open source movement evolved in the one industrial context where openness is not required by intellectual property law.1 Nevertheless, openness itself cannot be the driving force behind the open source movement. This is because openness can be achieved in many ways other than the GPL, for example, with proprietary licenses, or licenses that are even more permissive than the GPL, such as the BSD license.Early commentators explained this new development model by focussing on the motives of the programmer, such as to demonstrate skills. See the survey by Stephen M. Maurer and Suzanne Scotchmer (2006). But firms also participate in open-source collaborations, sometimes contributing significant resources (Joachim Henkel, 2006, Dirk Riehle, 2009). Doing so can be profitable even if the contributors are rivals in the market. The quality improvements or cost reductions provided by a rival’s open-source contributions may outweigh the deleterious effect of empowering the rival to be a better competitor.
- Subjects :
- Economics and Econometrics
media_common.quotation_subject
Context (language use)
jel:D45
Intellectual property
Social and Behavioral Sciences
open source
jel:L86
0502 economics and business
Computer software
general public license
jel:L24
Openness to experience
Economics
Quality (business)
050207 economics
Technology and Innovation
Law and economics
media_common
05 social sciences
Rationing
Veil of ignorance
Open source
software development
open source, software development, general public license, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Law, Technology and Innovation
jel:L17
Law
050203 business & management
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scotchmer, Suzanne. (2010). Openness, Open Source, and the Veil of Ignorance. Competition Policy Center. UC Berkeley: Competition Policy Center. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4d9052w7
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4a656ccd7322dfc025b5dbe6afd1d2f2