Abstract
We investigate how intellectual property (IP) enforcement against open source software (OSS) projects affects OSS adoption. We hypothesize that adoption of OSS sharing similar technological features with the litigated OSS technology and OSS typically used within organizations and complementary with the litigated OSS would be disproportionately affected by IP enforcement. We examine two widely publicized lawsuits – SCO v. IBM and FireStar/DataTern v. Red Hat – using data from SourceForge.net. Our difference-in-difference estimates show OSS projects similar to the litigated OSS had a 14% greater decline than projects in the control group in the months following the filing of SCO v. IBM and had an 11% greater decline following the filing of FireStar/DataTern v. Red Hat; OSS projects for organizations and complementary with the litigated OSS had a 37% greater decline following the filing of SCO v. IBM and a 16% greater decline following the filing of FireStar/DataTern v. Red Hat.
Recommended Citation
Wen, Wen; Forman, Chris; and Graham, Stuart, "THE IMPACT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ENFORCEMENT ON OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE ADOPTION" (2010). ICIS 2010 Proceedings. 187.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2010_submissions/187