Essay on Software Forking
Today, the progress of technology contributes to the fast development of new products. At the same time, the emergence of new products often raises a number of legal and ethical issues, especially when intellectual property rights issue come into play. In this respect, it is possible to refer to software forking, which mirrors consistent changes in the contemporary economy under the impact of emerging technologies. Software forking is a new phenomenon in the contemporary economy environment. Software forking implies the development of new products on the existing platform. As a rule, software forking leads to the development of similar or competitive products. At the same time, in some cases, software forking may raise the problem of the violation of ethical issues and, more important, the violation of the intellectual property rights. The development of the networked economy leads to consistent changes in traditional approaches to business development because technology and innovations play the leading part in the competitive struggle between companies, while the abundance of new technologies lead to the emergence of such phenomena as software forking, when businesses may use one and the same platform to create new competitive products.
In fact, the development of software forking contributes to the emergence of new products. At the same time, the development of software forking leads to the development of similar products, which have the common framework or platform. At this point, it is possible to refer to Emacs text editor, such as GNU Emacs and XEmacs. In fact, GNU Emacs and XEmacs are similar products that use the same platform and they were developed for Mac products specifically. These products were branches of the same text editor but they were developed by different specialists and used the same platform to develop specific text editors, which were different from each other and have different specifications. In such a way, Emacs software contributed to the development of new text editors, which have certain differences in their characteristics and were offered as different products. At the same time, the development of new products on the ground of one and the same platform leads to the diversification of products but often raise the problem of the violation of intellectual property rights and the high competition in the same segment of the market, when products turn out to be similar and differences are slight and insignificant for users. As a result, users can choose any product, while companies may spend financial resources on the development of new products. In case of Emacs text editors, the company invested financial resources in the development of both text editors with the slight difference. At the same time, many companies use certain software as the basis for the development of their products. For instance, two companies may develop two different programs on the basis of one and the same software platform. In such a way, companies can develop competitive products. Therefore, the development of new products on the ground of software forking has dubious effects. On the one hand, software forking may have negative effects, whereas, on the other, software forking may contribute to the emergence of new technologies and products and the growth of the competition in the market.
The emergence of software forking mirrors different types of changes in the economy that have occurred since the emergence of information technologies and rapid progress of networks, software and computing. In this regard, the development of software forking is the result of the overall progress of technology in the contemporary business environment and economy. The contemporary economy grows networked and shifts online. In such a situation, software becomes extremely important for the effective business development. Moreover, the development of networks and online business opens larger opportunities for business development because companies can enter online market.
At the same time, information and intellectual property become crucial factors that give a strategic, competitive advantage in the contemporary business environment. Companies use information and new technologies to develop their business and to create new products and services. The development of new products is based on the intellectual property and information companies have. Therefore, today, companies can accelerate their business development through the introduction of innovations based on the information they have and their intellectual property. Many companies focus on the generation of new ideas for the creation of new products. Consequently, the ability of businesses to use new ideas defines, to a significant extent, their competitive position in the market.
In such a situation, businesses should be able to adapt new technologies fast to maintain their competitive position, while companies that do it faster than others and that can introduce innovations hold the leading position in the market. In fact, the contemporary economy forces companies to introduce changes fast and to adapt to changes to be able to maintain their competitive position. In this regard, the adaptation of new technologies is crucial. Software forking may be the effect of such attempts of companies to adapt new technologies and to introduce innovations. Software forking allows companies to use certain software as a platform for the development of new products that naturally stimulates their business development and growth. On the other hand, software forking fails to provide companies with a strategic competitive advantage because they cannot introduce a brand new product because rivals use the same platform. As a result, companies introduce new products, which do not differ much. They have certain specificities, which make their products different but their products are not unique, while uniqueness and exclusiveness are exactly what give companies a strategic competitive advantage in the contemporary business environment.
In addition, as it has been already mentioned above, software forking raises the problem of the violation of intellectual property rights and copyright, although the development of software forking normally involves agreements between companies developing new products and companies possessing property rights. Moreover, often companies developing software forking have similar projects which they develop on the ground of their own platforms. The concept of intellectual property changes in the networked economy. One and the same idea or software framework may be used for the development of new products or software, which have the same basis but different form and functions, as was the case of GNU Emacs and XEmacs. The development of new technologies raises the problem of the adaptation of the existing legislation to new reality, where new information technologies raise substantial challenges on the way to the protection of intellectual property rights. The adaptation of the legislation to new technological and business environment should focus on the protection of intellectual property rights. In fact, the emergence of software forking reveals the possible ways, where the violation of intellectual property rights may progress because companies create their own products but they use available platforms. Normally, companies use free platforms to create their new products, but they can also use platforms of other companies. In such a context, the problem of the violation of the intellectual property rights arises. Companies need to coordinate their new developments with owners of the intellectual property rights. However, companies may argue that they created their own products and their products are not violating intellectual property rights of other companies.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the development of new technologies leads to consistent changes in the development of the contemporary economy and business. To put it more precisely, the contemporary economy becomes networked and companies introduce new technologies. In fact, the contemporary economy shifts from manufacturing-oriented economy to innovations-oriented one. In such a situation, innovative ideas become strategically important for companies because innovations allow companies to take advantageous position in the market. At the same time, innovations may be highly controversial. At this point, it is possible to refer to software forking, when new products are created, but they use existing platforms and they are similar to each other, while differences are not substantial. Nevertheless, customers may prefer different products due to their specifications. However, in a long-run perspective, software forking opens little opportunities for gaining a competitive advantage in the market because companies do not create absolutely unique, exclusive products. However, it is unique and exclusive products that can give a strategic competitive advantage in the contemporary economy in a long-run perspective.
