The Success of Open Source

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published Oct. 31, 2005 by Harvard University Press.

ISBN:
978-0-674-01858-7
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OCLC Number:
61425353

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Much of the innovative programming that powers the Internet, creates operating systems, and produces software is the result of "open source" code, that is, code that is freely distributed--as opposed to being kept secret--by those who write it. Leaving source code open has generated some of the most sophisticated developments in computer technology, including, most notably, Linux and Apache, which pose a significant challenge to Microsoft in the marketplace. As Steven Weber discusses, open source's success in a highly competitive industry has subverted many assumptions about how businesses are run, and how intellectual products are created and protected.

Traditionally, intellectual property law has allowed companies to control knowledge and has guarded the rights of the innovator, at the expense of industry-wide cooperation. In turn, engineers of new software code are richly rewarded; but, as Weber shows, in spite of the conventional wisdom that innovation is driven by the promise of …

2 editions

Subjects

  • Computer Programming
  • Political Science
  • Computers - Languages / Programming
  • Politics/International Relations
  • Industries - Computer Industry
  • Programming - Software Development
  • Current Events / Law
  • General