@article {flosswp199, title = {The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond}, year = {2004}, month = {December}, abstract = {This paper reviews our understanding of the growing open source movement. We highlight how many aspects of open source software appear initially puzzling to an economist. As we have acknowledge, our ability to answer confidently many of the issues raised here questions is likely to increase as the open source movement itself grows and evolves. At the same time, it is heartening to us how much of open source activities can be understood within existing economic frameworks, despite the presence of claims to the contrary. The labor and industrial organization literatures provide lenses through which the structure of open source projects, the role of contributors, and the movement{\textquoteright}s ongoing evolution can be viewed.}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/lernertirole3.pdf}, author = {Josh Lerner} } @article {flosswp63, title = {The Scope of Open Source Licensing}, journal = {Journal of Law, Economics and Organization}, volume = {21}, number = {1}, year = {2002}, month = {2005}, pages = {20-56}, abstract = {This paper is an initial exploration of the determinants of open source license choice. It first enumerates the various considerations that should figure into the licensor{\textquoteright}s choice of contractual terms, in particular highlighting how the decision is shaped not just by the preferences of the licensor itself, but also by that of the community of developers. The paper then presents an empirical analysis of the determinants of license choice using the SourceForge database, a compilation of nearly 40,000 open source projects. Projects geared toward end-users tend to have restrictive licenses, while those oriented toward developers are less likely to do so. Projects that are designed to run on commercial operating systems and those geared towards the Internet are less likely to have restrictive licenses. Finally, projects that are likely to be attractive to consumers such as games are more likely to have restrictive licenses.}, keywords = {developers, license, licenses, permissive, restrictive, sourceforge}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/lernertirole2.pdf}, author = {Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole} } @article {flosswp10, title = {The Simple Economics of Open Source}, year = {2000}, month = {March}, abstract = {This paper makes a preliminary exploration of the economics of open source software. The authors highlight the extent to which labor economics, especially the literature of career concerns can explain many of these project features.}, attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/Josh\%2520Lerner\%2520and\%2520Jean\%2520Triole\%2520-\%2520The\%2520Simple\%2520Economics\%2520of\%2520Open\%2520Source.pdf}, author = {Josh Lerner} }