The concept of the commons has a long heritage. The Romans distinguished between different categories of property, these were: Firstly, res privatæ, which consisted of things capable of being possessed by an individual or family. The second, res publicæ, which consisted of things built and set aside for public use by the state, such as public buildings and roads. The third, res communes, which consisted of natural things used by all, such as the air, water and wild animals. The commons, or res communes, has had an important social function in our society, it provides a shared space, a resource that is shared within a community, a network of ideas and concepts that are non-owned.

Ever since the rise of capitalism, people have been putting fences around the commons and declaring “this is mine”

Ever since the rise of capitalism, people have been putting fences around the commons and declaring “this is mine”. In England, the phrase “good fences make good neighbours” has become unreflexive and normalised. The form of individualised property ownership within modern society, mediated through market exchange, has gradually colonised more and more of our social world. Should it also colonise the realm of information?

The Information Society

In the Information Age, our lives are increasingly mediated through digital technology. Through computers, technical devices and countless databases, servers, and storage systems, information has grown in importance and value. But, as information itself has become more crucial to modern society, so too has the desire to profit from it. Indeed, information, when viewed as a potential form of profit, justifies new ways of legitimating its ownership as a property right. And, of course, information when viewed as property seems to require fences; virtual fences that can both identify it as being owned, and prevent others from taking it without paying.

With the emergence of capitalism, more and more of the res communes was enclosed and transferred to the realm of res privatæ. In the Second Treatise on Government, John Locke argued that by “mixing” our labour with the commons we transform it into private property, if you farmed the land it would become property. However, there might be arguments and disputes regarding ownership, perhaps others might take the land from you, contest your ownership or even ignore your claims altogether. To avoid this danger and prevent “war of all against all” he proposed a social contract that would give property legal tenure in civil society. Following Hobbes, he argued that a state would need to be formed that would guarantee private property through a monopolisation of the use of violence and act as a neutral arbiter between different factions. Locke, though, made an important but often forgotten restriction on this initial acquisition of property, called the “Lockean proviso”. This states that individuals have the right of acquisition only if “enough and as good [is] left in common for others”.

Another famous justification for the “rationality” of private property is given in Garrett Hardin’s paper called “The Tragedy of the Commons”. This metaphor illustrates how individual’s interest conflicts with the common interest. In this article the Commons is a shared plot of grassland used by all livestock farmers in a village. Each farmer keeps adding more livestock to graze on the Commons, because he does not experience a direct cost for doing so. After a few years, overgrazing destroys the commons, it becomes unusable and the village perishes. It is often used to argue in favour of private property and against theories that defend communal ownership of resources. This narrative has been extremely influential, indeed much political and social policy is informed by the logic of this framework. However, it ignores the fact that property itself relies on a commons – i.e. laws that everyone agrees to abide by. A property regime only holds together on the basis of this common belief and shared understanding. In any case, the tragedy is only possible if you simplify human action to a selfish “rational choice” actor, rather than see human activity as extremely complex and part of a wider social network of norms and values.

When individuals contribute to a shared project that creates new ideas or even provides an important social function it becomes increasingly valuable

When individuals contribute to a shared project that creates new ideas or even provides an important social function it becomes increasingly valuable. It is no surprise that the temptation to appropriate and resell the products of the commons can be overwhelming. The current neo-liberal trend toward the privatisation of energy and communication services is another example of public goods being enclosed and transformed into private property. Market regimes and neo-liberalism survive off these privatisations; of physical goods, such as the transistor; of distribution networks, such as energy or water; or of services, such as the National Health Service. The commons, which once were considered the basis of the concept of the public, are privatised, and the values of common ownership and the public good are destroyed in exchange for market exchange and consumer choice. The relation between the public and the common is replaced by the power of private property and the market.

Digital Revolution

The digital revolution has facilitated widespread cultural participation and interaction that previously was not possible. At the same time, it has allowed the creation of new technologies, potentially limiting and controlling these forms of cultural participation and interaction. The “expression” of ideas and concepts, such as books and music, can be encoded into digital information so that it can be transferred through communications, databases and web pages. Theproduction and distribution of this information is a key source of wealth in the digital age and creates a new set of conflicts over capital and property rights that concern the right to distribute and gain access to information. With these restrictions on the access and use of information there is a corresponding restriction on the use of ideas and concepts.