Dual Licensing in Open Source Software Markets * Stefano Comino †
نویسندگان
چکیده
In this paper we present a theoretical model to study the characteristics and the commercial sustainability of dual licensing, an open source (OS) business strategy that has gained popularity among software vendors. With dual licensing, a firm releases the same software product under both a traditional proprietary license and an open source one. We show that the decision to employ a dual licensing strategy occurs whenever the feedbacks of the open source community are valuable enough compared to the quality of the software that the firm is able to develop in-house. Our analysis points to the central role of an appropriate managing of OS licenses in order to balance the pros and cons of “going open source” and to make this versioning strategy viable for software vendors; our analysis also suggests a possible explanation for the observed proliferation of open source licenses. J.E.L. codes: L11, L17, L86, D45.
منابع مشابه
Dual licensing in open source software markets
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 ...
متن کاملThe impact of free and open source licensing on operating system software markets
This paper describes the impact of different open source copyright licensing arrangements to the competition in microcomputer operating system markets. We compare the historical evolution of the licensing policies of Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X and GNU/Linux operating systems. We argue that open source and free software licensing has been one of the most important changing factors in the micr...
متن کاملOpen Source, Dual Licensing and Software Competition
To distribute software, commercial firms have the opportunity to use some dual licensing strategy i.e. to provide their software under two different licensing terms (proprietary and open source). In this paper, we investigate the relevance and impacts of such distribution strategy in the presence of an already existing open source software. In this competitive setting, we determine in which con...
متن کاملThe Impact of Free and Open Source Components on the Competition in Microcomputer Operating System Software Markets
This paper describes the impact of different open source copyright licensing arrangements to the competition in microcomputer operating system markets. We compare the historical evolution of the licensing policies of Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X and GNU/Linux operating systems. We argue that open source and free software licensing has been one of the most important changing factors in the micr...
متن کامل