This research-in-progress aims to indentify the salient factors explaining adoption of open source software (OSS), as a technological innovation. The theoretical background of the paper is based on the technological innovation literature. We choose to focus on the open ERP case, as it is...

Government policy makers have been confronted with requests by various lobbying groups to “level the playing field” for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers through policies that would remove the ability of patent holders to seek royalties for the use of their technologies in...

I consider a Vickrey-Salop model of spatial product differentiation with quasi-linear utility functions and contrast two modes of production, the proprietary model where entrepreneurs sell software to the users, and the open source model where users participate in software development. I show...

The potential for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to enable open innovation in a particular software market depends on the characteristics of that market. From this premise, using a case study approach, this Article argues that some software markets have characteristics that inherently...

The Federal Circuit’s ruling in Jacobsen v. Katzer finally settled the question of whether open source licenses are enforceable. Unfortunately, three recent cases from the Ninth Circuit have complicated matters. I call this trio of cases the “MDY Trio” in honor of the Ninth Circuit’s...

The advent and increasing use of free enterprise software presents new challenges and complexities in obtaining optimal governmental IT acquisitions. In this study, we consider the implications of pricing thresholds on government procurement processes in light of free software availability. We...

In the field of biotechnology, the patent system has had its share of detractors and has come under increasing criticism of late. It has been suggested that cooperative strategies such as open source could correct the inadequacies generated by the application of the patent system to...

When are too many Open Source Licenses enough? There is a need to reduce the number of Open Source Licenses that are available, in the Open Source Software license weltanschauung. However there are arguments for the need to add to the suite of licenses because of the failure of the available...

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...

Many of them argue that the open source software is free and free from intellectual property protection clutches. This paper argues that this notion is a myth when taking into account the percentage of proprietary software usage all over the world. The governmental policies and decision to...