This paper investigates competition between open source and proprietary software. Open source software is divided into two types: free open source and commercial open source. Free open source software can be available from the not-for-profit community, and Commercial open source software is software product based on free open source software. The usability of both free and commercial open sourc...

In the past few years, Open Source (OS) has become a topic for a far more heterogeneous community for both users and developers than it was before. Simultaneously, commercial aspects have gained a broad interest within the field of OS. More and more OS releases arise. Releasing sources under an OS license touches many different technical, legal, business and project management aspects. We devel...

The development of open source software is currently arousing increasing interest in the IT world. This research inquires some specific paths enlarging the traditional view over open source software in inquiring the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the dynamics associated its frontand back-office activities. We explain how distinguishing basic administration from operational constraints and w...

In the past few years, Open Source (OS) has become a topic for a far more heterogeneous community for both users and developers than it was before. Simultaneously, commercial aspects have gained a broad interest within the field of OS. More and more OS releases arise. The question becomes, what does it mean to publish software under an OS-license? Which working steps and aspects need to be take...

Firms in open source software (OSS) are active in a field encompassing all the characteristics of a public good, given the non-excludability and non-rivalry nature of OSS. As the case of OSS demonstrates, the fact that many important inputs to the innovative process are public should not be taken to mean that innovators are prevented from capturing private returns. The objective of this paper i...

Software is the backbone of scientific computing. Yet, while we regularly publish detailed accounts about the results of scientific software, and while there is a general sense of which numerical methods work well, our community is largely unaware of best practices in writing the large-scale, open source scientific software upon which our discipline rests. This is particularly apparent in the c...

Commercial open source software projects are open source software projects that are owned by a single firm that derives a direct and significant revenue stream from the software. Commercial open source at first glance represents an economic paradox: How can a firm earn money if it is making its product available for free as open source? This paper presents the core properties of commercial open...

The MARKOS license analyser is an innovative application of the latest version of the Carneades argumentation system, for helping software developers to analyse open source license compatibility issues.

Dual licensing has proved to be a sustainable business model for various commercial software vendors employing open source strategies. In this paper we study the main characteristics of dual licensing and under which conditions it represents a profitable commercial strategy. We show that dual licensing is a form of versioning, whereby the software vendor uses the open source licensing terms in ...