04/06/2004: 
Technologica
What Good Is Free Software?
or, Free Beer!
from Jim Bessen writing for the Brookings Inst.
referred by semi-alert reader Max Power
Excellent article articulating the reasons open source is beneficial to the innovation and development of the information economy. Calling open source development "an extension of the market, not an alternative", he says
Private agents meet private needs. As I explain below, instead of providing software in exchange for money, open source developers provide software in exchange for a (sometimes informal) promise to improve the product and return the fruits of their invention to the community. Government support is thus not necessary to sustain open source development. However, I argue that the U.S. government is nonetheless intervening in this market in a very different way, ironically sabotaging the otherwise healthy open source movement.Recently, IBM has poured big money in to open source development, while at the same time Linux faces patent infringement suits globally, fulfilling Mr. Bessen's propehcy of a few years ago. I recommend reading the whole article. (.pdf, 263k file).
Over the last two decades, the courts have radically changed the legal protection of the ideas embodied in software, making it much easier to obtain patents, even for rather obvious ideas.
