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Abstract
Executive Summary
Introduction
An Overview of the Principal Oss Licence Models
Conclusions and Policy Implications
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Open source software: From open science to new marketing models

Profile image of Salvatore TorrisiSalvatore Torrisi

2002, LEM Papers Series

Abstract

This research report analyses several issues on the economics and management of Open Source Software (OSS). It offers an historical description of the emergence of OSS and of heterogeneous types of actors involved in the OSS phenomenon. From a theoretical perspective the paper discusses some crucial topics: the organization and performance of the development process in open source and traditional proprietary models, the incentives to innovation in different regimes of intellectual property protection, the ingredients of business models based on open source software. From an empirical perspective it presents some data on the diffusion of open source software in some segments of the software market and develops a detailed comparison of open source and proprietary licensing models, also drawing some implications on the use of different types of open source licences in the commercial market.

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NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE SIMPLE ECONOMICS OF OPEN SOURCE The Simple Economics of Open Source
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for their willingness to generously spend time discussing the open source movement. Jacques Crémer, Bernard Salanié, and Rob Merges provided helpful comments. Harvard Business School's Division of Research provided financial support. The Institut D'Economie Industrielle receives research grants from a number of corporate sponsors, including Microsoft Corporation. All opinions and errors, however, remain our own. ABSTRACT There has been a recent surge of interest in open source software development, which involves developers at many different locations and organizations sharing code to develop and refine programs. To an economist, the behavior of individual programmers and commercial companies engaged in open source projects is initially startling. This paper makes a preliminary exploration of the economics of open source software. We highlight the extent to which labor economics, especially the literature on "career concerns," can explain many of these projects' features. Aspects of the future of open source development process, however, remain somewhat difficult to predict with "offthe-shelf" economic models.

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