The article says "The recent Commission study on the impact of Open Source Software and Hardware on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy showed that investment in open source leads on average to four times higher returns. "
Four times higher returns ... compared to what?
It's like an advertisement that says our product contains 30% less fat. 30% less than what? Than other leading brands? Than your previous formulation (and if so, how do we know you didn't artificially increase the amount of fat in said formulation, so it'd be easy to reduce)?
The author of the study, Knut Blind of Fraunhofer, is a hardent proponent of software patents. If you read the study, you will find those nonsense things related to patents:
"Table 5.16: Impact of OSS Commits on patents on computer-implemented inventions
(FE)"
"the number of national contributors to OSS has a positive influence on the development of patents on CII as an innovation indicator of the IT sector."
Four times higher returns ... compared to what?
It's like an advertisement that says our product contains 30% less fat. 30% less than what? Than other leading brands? Than your previous formulation (and if so, how do we know you didn't artificially increase the amount of fat in said formulation, so it'd be easy to reduce)?