A discussion of hybrid open source and proprietary licensing models.

[Andrea Glorioso <sama AT miu-ft.org>]

>>>>> "Marshall" == Marshall Van Alstyne <marshall AT MIT.EDU> writes:

    > Interesting.  But, the folks who are capable of copying an SUV
    > are relatively few in number.

    > So let's take an idea put forward in the recording industry
    > debates.  Is the pirate copy a complement or a substitute?  If
    > the copy is sufficiently imperfect, it's more of an appetizer, a
    > sample of the main course that leaves you hungry for more.  This
    > would be a complement.

    > But if the copy is perfect, as it could be for most information
    > content, then it could sate an appetite and limit sales.  This
    > would be a substitute.

    > So the real implication would be a measure of complementarity or
    > substitutability perhaps in turn measured by precision and
    > completeness of the copy...

You  could be interested   in  Stan Liebowitz's  paper,  "Peer-to-peer
networks:   Creative Destruction or   just  Plain Destruction?" [0] in
which  the author  writes   about the  complement/substitute  argument
(amongst other  things).  The paper  has a good deal  of bibliography,
too.

Bye,

--
Andrea Glorioso             sama AT miu-ft.org         +39 333 820 5723
        .:: Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia ::.
              Conquering the world for fun and profit

[0] http://www.serci.org/congress/papers/liebowitz2.pdf