The Rise of Open Source Licensing

The Rise of Open Source Licensing: A Challenge to the Use of Intellectual Property in the Software Industry, by Mikko Välimäki, 2005

Open source software - from Linux to Firefox and MySQL database - has changed software business as we knew it. New start-ups have challenged industry heavyweights from Microsoft to Oracle with innovative copyright licensing strategies and courageous anti-patent policies. Almost every major software company has been forced to react to the commodification trend.

Drawing from detailed case studies, historical narrative and the application of economic theory, this book shows how open source licensing is used for strategic advantage. Software developers enter open source to distribute their work more efficiently and increase innovation. Software is no longer property, they say. Interestingly, everything has worked despite - rather than because of - ever-expanding intellectual property rights.

Is there a limit? In the United States, the headline cases by SCO against Linux supporters and users opened the surface of intellectual property infringement risks. In Europe, there is ongoing public debate about the impact of software patents on open source. This book goes beyond fear and doubt arguing that such legal risks are in the end just necessary but manageable uncertainties, which always come with a new business model.

Mikko Välimäki teaches technology law at the Helsinki University of Technology. He has consulted extensively on open source licensing. His website is at valimaki.org.

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