The Tragedy of the Anti-Commons

[ Thanks to Brendan Scott for this
link. ]

“Misapplication of ‘value for money’ requirements when
purchasing software results in poor value for money–Government
purchasing policies for software tend to support the creation of
monopolies.

“Government purchasing has effects on the price paid by citizens
for the product purchased. In some cases purchasing produces volume
which permits scale discounts and therefore a net benefit to
citizens who also purchase the product. However, in the case of
lock in software Government purchasing can create a monopoly in the
software which leads to increased costs for citizen purchasers and
a net detriment for society as a whole. It is not appropriate for
value for money policies to be assessed on a per acquisition basis
when software is being acquired. Doing so will almost certainly
create net costs for the community when considered in the
aggregate…”

Complete Story