2002/23 LEM Working Paper Series

Open Source Software: From Open Science to New Marketing Models
 
P. Giuri, G. Rocchetti and S. Torrisi
 
  Keywords
 
Open source Software, Intellectual Property, Licensing, Business Model.


  JEL Classification:
 
O31, O34, L86.


  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 involvedin 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 proprietarymodels, the incentives to innovation in different regimes of intellectual property protection,the ingredients of business models based on open source software. From an empirical perspectiveit 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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