Special features of Free Software
Keyword: Excludability
Term to classify goods
Excludable: Others can be excluded from using a good
Matching legal concept: property
Can be cast onto everything
Can be hard to maintain though
For instance: Information goods in Internet age
Necessary to create scarcity
Non-excludable: Others can not be excluded from using it
Anything which can not be private property?
Non-excludable goods are often public goods
For instance: Roads
Each market is based on excludable goods
Free Software made non-excludable by the license
- Chance of contributions rises when more people use it
- Regardless of how many "free ride"
Conclusion
GPL society: Extending principles of Free Software to rival goods while dropping exclusion
- Discussion
- Explanation
- Translations