Free Software and Open Source Software are two points of view of the same domain. The difference between them lies in the motivations that are emphasised. Open Source Software is in a sense a practical implementation of the Free Software philosophy. Richard Stallman says that “The fundamental difference between the two movements is in their values, their ways of looking at the world”.

“ I refer to the problem of digitised property. The enigma is this: If our property can be infinitely reproduced and instantaneously distributed all over the planet without cost, without our knowledge, without its even leaving our possession, how can we protect it? How are we going to be paid for the work we do with our minds?…. This vessel, the accumulated cannon of copyright and patent law, was developed to convey forms and methods of expression entirely different from the vaporous cargo it is now being asked to carry. It is leaking as much from within as from without...” Author:John Perry Barlow, Selling Wine Without Bottles: The Economy of Mind on the Global Net

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Author: Thomas Jefferson

On this website the user can find the third chapter (“The impact of Electronic Commerce on Intellectual Property”) of a primer on e-commerce and Intellectual Property issues published by the WIPO. (World Intellectual Property Organization). In a fundamental respect, the international character of electronic commerce raises questions for the nature of traditional legal systems in general, and intellectual property law in particular. Both are based on notions of sovereignty and territoriality. The Internet, in contrast, like the movement of weather within the global climate, largely ignores distinctions based on territorial borders. Instead, infrastructure, code and language have thus far had a greater bearing on the reach of its currents. This Primer turns to address the impact of the digital economy on the intellectual property system, namely, copyright and related rights, patents and trademarks. Each of these intellectual property disciplines is confronted with new issues generated by the emergence of the Internet and electronic commerce. Each of them must successfully resolve these issues in order for electronic commerce to flourish. The Primer also addresses domain names and their relation to trademarks, reporting on the intensive work that WIPO has begun in this area.

Source: WIPO offical website

Updating copyright and intellectual property laws to meet the challenges of the networked environment has been a key focus for Congress, the courts, and state legislatures for several years. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, peer-to-peer file sharing and digital rights management, and legislation to create additional protections for databases have dominated the agenda. On this web site, the reader can find useful information about the relevant rules pertaining to digital IPR in the US legal system. Source: Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC