Kimball Corson — The Internet is the Virtual Commons of 21st Century

The commons was once just that. Huge unfenced areas open to the use of any and all. Then, by legal slight of hand, they became privatized, fenced and own by wealthy private individuals who used law and government to acquire them. They then charged others for their rental use. The internet is the 21st century analogue of the commons. That is what the fuss regarding net neutrality is largely all about. 

Monied interests want exclusive and superior access to most of the better aggregate bandwidth. They are trying to use law and government to get it, just as with the commons. The issue becomes will the rest of us become relegated to the lesser piece of the internet and otherwise be cut off.…

And intellectual property is the enclosure of mental space.

Wandering the Oceans
The Internet is the Virtual Commons of 21st Century
Kimball Corson