Reclaiming the commons
One of the great questions of contemporary American political economy is, who shall control the commons? "The commons" refers to that vast range of resources that the American people collectively own, but which are rapidly being enclosed: privatized, traded in the market, and abused. The process of converting the American commons into market resources can accurately be described as enclosure because, like the movement to enclose common lands in eighteenth-century England, it involves the private appropriation of collectively owned resources. If you have some interest in the philosophy of Free Software, Read more - Bollier's essay provides the sort of Advance Organizers that educational psychologists talk of when learning a new concept! Be sure to read even if you have no interest in Free Software - it won't be disappointing! Here is RMS's response to the essay.