Copyright Versus Patents: The Open Source Software Legal Battle
20 Pages Posted: 29 Jun 2007
Abstract
Open Source Software is often viewed as an anti-intellectual property regime. In contrast, we argue how intellectual property law is at the heart of open source model since licenses that organize the innovation and business relationships between developers, distributors and end-users are based on copyright law. The proliferation of software patents can, however be seen as a threat for the development and deployment of open source software. We present the nature of the threat and review a series of initiatives undertaken by the open source community to address them effectively. These initiatives, such as the redesign of licenses and the creation of patent commons, are a testiment to a genuinely creative use of intellectual property law by the open source community, not its undermining.
Keywords: Copyright, patent, open source software
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
The Simple Economics of Open Source
By Jean Tirole and Josh Lerner
-
The Simple Economics of Open Source
By Jean Tirole and Josh Lerner
-
How Open Source Software Works: 'Free' User-to-User Assistance?
-
By Karim R. Lakhani and Robert G. Wolf
-
Open Source Software and the 'Private-Collective' Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science
-
The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond
By Jean Tirole and Josh Lerner
-
The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond
By Jean Tirole and Josh Lerner
-
Community, Joining, and Specialization in Open Source Software Innovation: A Case Study
By Georg Von Krogh, Sebastian Spaeth, ...