Article Title
The Tragedy of (Ignoring) the Information Semicommons: A Cultural Environmental Perspective
Abstract
The second enclosure movement critique is familiar theoretical territory for scholars concerned with the creeping maximalist impulse of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Just as the first enclosure movement relating to real property created controversies concerning social contract and the advertised efficiencies of private real property, so too these concerns are echoed within the context of IPRs. This paper employs the emergent discourse of cultural environmentalism so as to diagnose and resolve IPR issues evident within the information environment. Cultural environmentalism borrows, begs, and steals analytical frameworks from environmentalism, such as those relating to the commons, public choice theory, welfare economics, and ecology. After proffering a brief overview of the second enclosure movement critique and cultural environmentalism, this paper settles on the analytical framework of the commons. Specifically, it is the commons-related tragedies such as the tragedy of the commons, the tragedy of the anticommons, and the tragedy of (ignoring) the information semicommons, that provide insight into critical efficiency concerns that lie dormant within the information environment. Ultimately, the paper argues that to ignore the benefits accruing from the dynamic interaction between private and commons uses of information is a tragedy-the tragedy of (ignoring) the information semicommons.
Recommended Citation
Cunningham, Robert
(2010)
"The Tragedy of (Ignoring) the Information Semicommons: A Cultural Environmental Perspective,"
Akron Intellectual Property Journal: Vol. 4
:
Iss.
1
, Article 1.
Available at:
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronintellectualproperty/vol4/iss1/1