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n can overe freeriding problem and ensure that the creator achieves an adequate return from his/her creation. This may be essential to ensure that there are sufficient economic incentives for creative activity. ? Against: institutional IP protection mechanisms are all forms of monopoly. Sometimes these mechanisms provide excessive protection. ? Fundamental dilemma in IP protection: 1) need to maintain incentives to encourage panies to go to the expense and risk of creating IP。 2) It is economically efficient to diffuse use of IP at marginal cost – and with IP that is often close to zero. Strategic methods of IP protection ? Confidentiality agreement (or nondisclosure agreement) is a legal contract between at least two parties in which they agree not to share some confidential materials with any third party. ? Secrecy: panies protect their intellectual property by keeping it secret from all outsiders and almost all insiders. ? Leadtime: to use it before anyone else can ? Complexity Which method? Institutional or strategic? Open source ? What does open source mean: ? Intellectual property rights are not abandoned ? The original source code of the software is made open to other software developers ? Software can be freely distributed ? Why does open source create better software? ? Economic benefits: reduce access cost for consumers, and administration and enforcement costs for the society ? Who participates: LernerTiroleans, Social Hackers, Social Learners, von Hippelites