In a Pandemic it becomes clearer than ever - proprietary IP and copyright ownership models fail society’s needs on every level. The pandemic has brought topics like sustainability and resilience into the limelight. Local production suddenly seems on everyone's lips as it could help to solve shortages that post a threat to our society. However, in the landscape of proprietary products it is simply not possible to provide the software, hardware schematics and know-how to everywhere in the world at the speed required. Traditional proprietary IP controlled distribution models, business development practices and hiring processes do not work in a pandemic and they do not work in a world threatened by climate change. A famous example how proprietary supply chains failed was the shortage of ventilators in many parts of the world at the beginning of the pandemic when borders are closed.Sharing knowledge openly and developing solutions collaboratively in the open source way provides a proven alternative which could be literally live-saving in a pandemic. In this session I will discuss what opportunities open source software and hardware provide to society in these times, what long term benefits global knowledge, design and technology sharing will have and how local production can even help to save the climate.