Anti-rival good
This term is a neologism, coined to describe goods that are created by a process of reciprocal exchange for mutual benefit, such as open source software.
Anti-rival goods can be clearly from distinguished from public goods, as explained by Lawrence Lessig:
It's not just that code is non-rival; it's that code in particular, and (at least some) knowledge in general, is, as Weber calls it, 'anti-rival'. I am not only not harmed when you share an anti-rival good: I benefit.
An anti-rival good meets the test of a public good because it is non-excludable (freely available to all) and non-rival (consumption by one person does not reduce the amount available for others). However it has the additional quality of being created by private individuals for common benefit without being motivated by pure altruism (because the individual contributor receives benefits from the contributions of others). The term also invokes Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) and the concept of a gift economy. See also Private good.
A wikipedia entry is an example of an anti-rival good. In more general terms, according to Lessig, so is a particular language; "Language is an anti-rival good: not only does your speaking English not restrict me, your speaking it benefits me. The more people who speak a language, the more useful that language is... to those who speak it."
References and further reading
- Lessig, L. "Do You Floss?". London Review of Books. Retrieved November 14.
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