Open source code, in static state, is a public good, meaning that it is both non-excludable and non-rivalrous. Like my neighbor’s Christmas decorations, if it can be consumed at nearly zero marginal cost we should just let people have it. The value of this code can be measured like any other type of infrastructure: by its number of dependencies, as well as by its substitutability. The production of open source code, however, functions more like a commons—meaning that it is non-excludable and rivalrous—where attention is the rivalrous resource. Maintainers can’t stop users from bidding for
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