Who Chooses Open-Source Software?

Economists and legal scholars have debated the reasons people adopt opensource software, and accordingly whether and to what extent the open-source model can scale, replacing proprietary rights as a primary means of production. In this Article, we use the release by a biotechnology company of similar software under both proprietary and open-source licenses to investigate who uses open-source software and why. We find that academic users are somewhat more likely to adopt open-source software than private firms. We find only modest differences in the willingness of open-source users to modify or improve existing programs. And we find that users of open-source software often make business decisions that seem indifferent to the norms of opensource distribution. Our findings cast some doubt on the penetration of the open-source ethos beyond traditional software markets

Who Chooses Open-Source Software?

Economists and legal scholars have debated the reasons people adopt opensource software, and accordingly whether and to what extent the open-source model can scale, replacing proprietary rights as a primary means of production. In this Article, we use the release by a biotechnology company of similar software under both proprietary and open-source licenses to investigate who uses open-source software and why. We find that academic users are somewhat more likely to adopt open-source software than private firms. We find only modest differences in the willingness of open-source users to modify or improve existing programs. And we find that users of open-source software often make business decisions that seem indifferent to the norms of opensource distribution. Our findings cast some doubt on the penetration of the open-source ethos beyond traditional software markets

The Effects of Expert Testimony On Mock Jurors\u27 Decision Making and Memory

This experiment examined the influence of two types of expert testimony (specific and general) on mock jurors\u27 decision making and memory of a legal case involving a repressed memory of childhood sexual abuse. Participants were exposed to one of four conditions (specific plaintiff expert testimony - specific defense expert testimony, specific plaintiff expert testimony - general expert defense testimony, general plaintiff expert testimony - specific defense expert testimony, or general plaintiff expert testimony - general defense expert testimony), awarded damages to the plaintiff, and completed a free recall memory task. Gender differences were found for monetary damages with women awarding more than twice as much as men. Women also remembered more of the trial than did their male counterparts. Additionally, subjects who were exposed to specific expert testimonies were able to recall more than subjects in the general expert testimony condition. Possible reasons for these results and the implications are discussed