PROTECTING THE VIRTUAL COMMONS — Self-organizing open source communities and innovative intellectual property regimes

Ruben van Wendel de Joode, Hans de Bruijn, and Michel van Eeten

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2002)

This report addresses five questions related to open source and free software communities: 1. Why have open source and free software communities created so many different licenses to protect their intellectual property? 2. What influence do licenses have on the organization of the communities and their ability to innovate? 3. What are the intellectual property rights on software and what are the differences between the rights in Europe and the United States? 4. What are the tensions between the way open source and free software communities deal with intellectual property and the way that companies protect and use their intellectual property? 5. What regulatory arrangements can deal with the tensions between the corporate model and the open source and free software development model?