Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information:
Economic, Legal, and Social Perspectives

INFOSYS 296A-2 | University of California at Berkeley | Fall 2005


Aug. 29 - An Introduction to Open Source

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Sept. 12 - Open Source Software in Practice

Guest Lecturer: Brian Behlendorf (CollabNet)

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Sept. 19 - Economics of Open Source

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Sept. 26 - Open Source Business Models (Part I)

Guest Lecturer: Dan McGrath (IBM)

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Oct. 3 - Open Source Business Models (Part II)

  • Robert Young and Wendy Goldman Rohm, Under the Radar: How Red Hat Changed the Software Business and Took Microsoft by Surprise Chapters 4 and 5.
  • Chris Rasch, "The Wall Street Performer Protocol: Using Software Completion Bonds to Fund Open Source Software Development," First Monday 6 (2001), at: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_6/rasch/index.html
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Oct. 10 - Roles of Open Source & Proprietary Software in the Private Sector

Pam's Lecture Slides: PDF (92KB)

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Oct. 17 - Government Policy About Open Source

Steves's Lecture Slides: PDF (913KB)

Pam's Lecture Slides: PDF (70KB)

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Oct. 24 - Regulability of Open Source/Open Source as a Global Phenomenon

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Oct. 31 - Conceptual Underpinnings of Free and Open Source Licenses: Property, Contract, or Something Else?

Guest Lecturer: Margaret Radin (Stanford Law School)

Recommended:

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Nov. 7 - Enforceability of Open Source Licenses

Guest Lecturer: Molly van Houweling (UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law)

Guest Lecturer: Brian Carver (UC Berkeley, 3rd-Year Student at Boalt Hall School of Law)

Brian's Lecture Slides: PDF (82KB)

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Nov. 14 - Adapting the Open Source Concept to Biotech Innovations

Guest Lecturer: Steve Maurer (UC Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy)

Maurer's Lecture Slides: PDF (158KB)

  • Sara Boettiger & Dan L. Burk, Open Source Patenting, 1 J. Biotech. L. 221 (2004), available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=645182
  • Arti Rai, Open and Collaborative Research: A New Model for Biomedicine, in INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN FRONTIER INDUSTRIES 131 (Robert W. Hahn ed., AEI-Brookings Press 2005), available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=574863

Recommended:

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Nov. 28 - Adapting the Open Source Concept to Other Content: Reports on Other Experiments

Students to post readings on course website/blog
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Dec. 5 - Adapting the Open Source Concept to Principles of Democratic Governance

Guest Lecturer: Beth Noveck (New York Law School)

  • Charles Sabel, Work and Politics: The Division of Labor in Industry Chapter 1.
  • Steven Weber, "What if Open Source Principles of Governance Find Their Way into Communities of Knowledge and Practice in Politics?", forthcoming in Open Sources II.
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