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Public provision of a private good: What is the point of the BSD license?

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Author Info
Alex Gaudeul (University of East Anglia - Norwich & ESRC Centre for Competition Policy)

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Abstract

Software is a potentially excludable public good. It is possible, at some cost, to exclude non-paying users from its consumption by using copyright law or technological restraints. Licensing the software under proprietary license terms makes of it a private good, licensing it under the BSD does not change the economic nature of the software while licensing it under the GPL artificially makes of it a pure public good. A project leader will prefer one or the other of those license terms depending on her software project’s market potential and on the cost of developing it. The optimal licensing for a sequence of cumulative innovations and the impact of possible competition between rival software development teams are considered.

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File URL: http://129.3.20.41/eps/io/papers/0511/0511002.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Industrial Organization with number 0511002.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 41 pages
Date of creation: 09 Nov 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0511002

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 41
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Web page: http://129.3.20.41

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Related research
Keywords: Open Source Software; Public Goods; Information Goods; Non- Profit; Volunteer Organisation; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Licensing; Innovation;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
D45 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - Rationing; Licensing
D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs
L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
O31 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
O32 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
O34 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Intellectual Property Rights

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Mikko Mustonen, 2005. "When Does a Firm Support Substitute Open Source Programming?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 14(1), pages 121-139, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Palfrey, Thomas R. & Rosenthal, Howard, 1984. "Participation and the provision of discrete public goods: a strategic analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 171-193, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Justin Pappas Johnson, 2002. "Open Source Software: Private Provision of a Public Good," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(4), pages 637-662, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. von Krogh, Georg & Spaeth, Sebastian & Lakhani, Karim R., 2003. "Community, joining, and specialization in open source software innovation: a case study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1217-1241, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Alex Gaudeul, 2004. "The LaTeX project: A case study of open source software," Industrial Organization 0409010, EconWPA, revised 20 Apr 2005. [Downloadable!]
  6. Bergstrom, Theodore & Blume, Lawrence & Varian, Hal, 1986. "On the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 25-49, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2005. "The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 99-120, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Hellmann, Thomas F & Perotti, Enrico C, 2006. "The Circulation of Ideas: Firms Versus Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 5469, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Alexia Gaudeul, 2008. "Consumer Welfare and Market Structure in a Model of Competition Between Open Source and Proprietary Software," Working Papers 08-31, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia. [Downloadable!]
  2. Alex Gaudeul, 2007. "Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition? The Case Study," Review of Network Economics, Concept Economics, vol. 6(2), pages 239-263, June. [Downloadable!]
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