The Korean Journal of Economic Studies
The Knowns and the Unknowns about Open Source Software: History, Industrial Organization and Policy
Namhyung Lee(Korea University), Joonil Kim(Korea University)Year 2016Vol. 64No. 2
Abstract
Open source software is developed by voluntary developers who use publiclyavailable source codes and distributed freely with licenses. Open sourcesoftware can be regarded as a new way of production in terms that: it exploitsintellectual property rights not for exclusive benefits but for public usage; itlimits direct private profits but opens possibilities for indirect ones; and it takesadvantage of dispersed production networks. This paper has two mainobjectives: we try to explain that open source way has started from thebeginning of computers and survey related researches in economics after therenowned work of Lerner and Tirole (2002). In this paper, mainly we dealwith developers’ motivations, development processes and managements,market competition, licenses, policies and implications to other industries.