I Workshop WebScience Brazil Promoting the Commons: Brazilian Public Software Website and the Public Brand Agreement Marcus V. B. Soares (Ph.D. Candidate, presenter) Felipe M. G. França (Advisor) Maria da Graça D. Fonseca (Advisor)

I Workshop WebScience Brazil Marcus Vinicius Brandão Soares Phd candidate and M.Sc. - COPPE-Systems Civil and Labor Judicial Expert – RJ e Campos dos Goytacazes Member of the Justice and Digital Law Research Group of the School of Law - TRT/MG (GEDEL) Member of the Digital Law Brazilian Institute (IBDE) Academic member of the Brazilian Institute for Intelectual Property Rights studies (IBDI) Member of the Science, Technology and Society Research Group (NECSO/UFRJ)

I Workshop WebScience Brazil "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." Thomas Jefferson

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  What is GNU/Linux?  What is Commons ?  Commons and Brazilian Public Software (BPS)  BPS, Public Brand Agreement (PBA) and TCosts  Conclusion

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  What is GNU/Linux ? Operating System Manages hardware resources Provides a user-friendly interface Collaborative and Competitive Construction GNU tools and Linux kernel A “new” way of working (very well known by scientists...) Licensed by GPLv2 A new way of licensing software GNU/Linux is a Commons

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  What is Commons ? Neither public, nor private Oceans, glaciers and solar energy are Commons by Nature Free Software is a Commons by Construction Developed by developers and users GPL and similar licenses Intensive use of Internet Emphasis in software construction instead of appropritaion Self-allocation in projects under self-evaluation

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  Commons and Brazilian Public Software (BPS) (1) Brazilian Government and Free Software Technological development and employment generation Brazilian Public Software: from Public to Commons –Brazilian Government and BPS Portal Transaction costs justify BPS Portal existence, but … What are Transaction Costs ?

I Workshop WebScience Brazil “A transaction occurs when a good or a service is transferred across a technologically separable interface. One stage of activity terminates and another begins.” Source The Economic Institutions of Capitalism, Oliver Williamson, Free Press, 1985, pp. 01. “Downloading [GNU/]Linux is a transaction” Source: "Neither market nor hierarchy or network: The emerging bazaar governance", Demil, B., Lecoq, X., Open Source Community, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003, pp. 10.

I Workshop WebScience Brazil “In order to carry out a market transaction it is necessary to discover who it is that one wishes to deal with[1], to inform people that one wishes to deal and on what terms, to conduct negotiations leading up to a bargain, to draw up the contract[2], to undertake the inspection needed to make sure that the terms of the contract are being observed[3], and so on[4]. These operations are often extremely costly, sufficiently costly at any rate to prevent many transactions that would be carried out in a world in which the pricing system worked without cost. ” Source: “The Problem of Social Cost". Journal of Law and Economics. Out. 1960, pp. 10.

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  Commons and BPS (2) Ex-ante Transaction Costs [1] Search Costs [2] Negotiation Costs Ex-post Transaction Costs [3] Monitoring Costs [4] Actuation Costs

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  BPS, Public Brand Agreement and TCosts Internet Portal hosting reduces search costs GPL (and futurely the PBA) eliminates negotiation costs All users/ developers share monitoring costs “AS IS” / No Warraty clauses eliminate actuating costs

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  Conclusions  BPS is Commons BPS Portal and the Public Brand Agreement Stimulate Competition and Collaboration: Meritocracy Reduce Transaction Costs Are Fostered by Brazilian Government Help in technological development and in employment generating

I Workshop WebScience Brazil  Thanks a lot for your attention Marcus Vinicius Brandão Soares