Questions

The reason that there are less open source videogames compared to operating systems is that video games are used for a limited period of time, rarely require substantial game-specific complementary investments, offer limited opportunities for useful modifications, and are mostly offered to consumers with no programming skills. (Journal of Public Economic Theory) page 617. Open source operating systems are much more successful as it eliminates the holdups that can potentially materialize with proprietary software. Holdups can occur when proprietary operating systems require users to wait for the original vendor to make necessary changes to the software and there is no guarantee that the original vendor will satisfy unusual requirements that more sophisticated users may require. (Journal of Public Economic Theory) page 612.
 * 1.** **Explain why there are open source operating systems but few open source games**

**2.** **Provide an argument for intellectual property on software** It was generally acknowledged that software was very easily replicated. The idea of the intellectual property protection on software was to protect the ideas leading up to the product, rather than a copyright on the artifact itself. By having intellectual properties on software, developers are provided with incentives to create software products, as well as gain recognition/fortune for their hard work.

**3.** **Provide an argument against intellectual property on software** Having Intellectual property on software hinders the productivity and growth of the any ideas related to the software. By allowing the creators to hold certain rights to their intellectual property, potential opportunities for an idea to grow and expand into a better concept could very well be dismissed. Intellectual property on software is also ineffective, since people are still able to duplicate a program's binary sources and have the program function as a whole without the permission of the creator.

**4.** **Provide an argument for government support for free/open source software** Governments might want to support free/open source software for a number of reasons. Firstly, FOSS encourages national competencies in open source development in the sense that it has the potential to increase software development skills since people who may not have been able to afford proprietary software previously can now work on developing software without having to pay for it. Another reason is that governments such as Peru may have no reason to support software companies such as Microsoft, when none of the money that is spent on purchasing software is helping the Peruvian economy – it is all being outsourced to the U.S. A country may also have the power to influence others to adopt open source technology and finally, for the reason of transparency: open source software use in the government would allow citizens to access and verify code that stores important information such as tax records.

**5.** **Provide an argument against government support for free/open source software** One argument against government support for free/ open source software is that building a strong relationship with government and free software can potentially dilute the rational and technically-based justifications for free software. This can serve to weaken free software's own political agnosticism stance that enables it to appeal to a wide range of audience because of it's lack of political agenda. This can be reinforced by the fact that programmers view politics as buggy, mediated, and tainted action clouded by ideology that is not productive of much anything while it insidiously works against true forms of free thought.

**6.** **Use the notion of “sticky knowledge” to explain why production of free/open source software could be more efficient than production of proprietary software** The notion of “sticky knowledge” suggests that sharing of knowledge costs effort and money in the production of proprietary software. The production of free/open source software could be more efficient than proprietary software due to its tendency to attract developers and users to contribute their free time and money in a community of projects voluntarily, bringing out the full potential of the free/open source software project, as opposed to paying and negotiating in order to share knowledge in the production of proprietary software.

**7.** **Explain why the concept of “deadweight loss” may not be the best explanation of why production of free software is more efficient than production of proprietary software.** Deadweight loss may not be the best explanation of why production of free software is more efficient than production of proprietary software, since it deals heavily with intellectual property and monopoly pricing. The difference with free software is that depriving a user of access does not free up additional resources, and that the investment in a software application is made only once. Therefore, the efficient competitive price would be zero and deadweight loss would not be a factor in the production of free software.

**8.** **Explain the concept with “network effects” with an example other than the ones used in class.** The concept of network effects occurs when more widely used software may be a better choice for a user even if it is inferior to a lesser used software. The reason why it would be a better choice would be because the more widely used software would receive more support due to its larger user base. When a network effect is present the value of a product or service increases as more people use it. For example, if you plant trees on your lawn, the neighbours enjoy it for free. If you own and rent out all the houses on the block you can factor the trees into the rent and get more value out of them this way. Network externalities either benefit or hurt other people.

**9.** **Does free software have a political agenda? If so, what is it?** Coleman refers to the FOSS political position as “political agnosticism”. The freedom of free software, while influenced by wider liberal sensibilities, is fundamentally shaped by the pragmatics of programming and the social context of Internet use. It believes that if it were to have a political agenda, this might corrupt the “purity” of the technical decision-making process and a political affiliation might deter people from participating in development. A political tag is perceived to curtail one’s personal freedom for deciding how to best interpret this domain of activity. However, FOSS has had political implications (leftist media groups adore FOSS because of its subversive, anti-capitalist potentialities).

**10.** **Some of the best software available today is free. On the other hand, most popular books and movies are proprietary. Explain why this might be the case.** Some of the best software available today is produced by companies such as Microsoft and Dell who produce proprietary software as well. Their interest in free software lays in the knowledge that the availability of high-quality free software will directly impact the sales of hardware that these companies also produce since software and hardware are complementary goods. Most popular books and movies are proprietary because those who create these works generally do not create the products needed to watch/read them. Also, movies do not have substitutes like hardware and software do, which means that if you want to purchase a popular movie such as Star Wars, there isn’t another film you can buy as a substitute. This means the makers of Star Wars do not have to worry about lowering the prices of their film since there is no competition.

**11.** **Explain the role of non-profit foundation in open source software development** Nonprofit foundations have become a key element of public software institutions, making it possible for public software contributers to attract financial resources from a wide range of actors, thus achieving independence vis-a-vis other institutions. (Takhteyev, 631) The role of a non-profit foundation in open source software development is to support the project economically. It gives credibility to the project, while ethically allocating funds to produce free software and without losing money to taxes [501(c)(3)]. It acts as a government for the free software project by ensuring that the project and all of its sub-projects receives support so that they can perpetuate the movement of free software through advertising and paying legal fees and website hosting to third parties.

**12.** **Explain how Proposition 1609 was re-framed after a debate with Microsoft and Senator Villanueva.** Proposition 1609 originally proposed the mandatory adoption of the use of free software in all areas of Peru’s government, making exceptions only where a developed enough free software application was not yet available. It advocated the use of free software to garner Peruvian independence from transnational corporate control. Microsoft attempted to persuade Senator Villanueva to revoke his support for the free software bill by portraying free software as a compromise to the state and as a technology of risk. Villanueva then re-wrote the document which then specified that the bill was propelled less by ideals of users’ technological freedoms, and more by notions of citizens’ rights (translated the general principles of free software from focusing on individual consumer freedoms to emphasizing collective social rights, where citizens bore the right to access, understand, and rework public institutions).