Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth'They hang the man and flog the woman That steal the goose from off the common, But let the greater villain loose That steals the common from the goose.' - Traditional nursery rhyme Until a 1998 federal court decision, a Minnesota publisher claimed to own every federal court decision, including Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education. A Texas company was recently allowed to calm a patent on basmati rice, a kind of rice grown in India for hundreds of years. The Mining Act of 1872 is still in effect, allowing companies to buy land from the government at USD5 and acre if they pan to mine it. These are resources that belong to al of use, yet they are being given away to companies with anything but the common interest in mind. Where was the public outcry, or the government intervention, when these were happening? The answers are alarming. Private corporations are consuming the resources that the American people collectively own at a staggering rate, and the government is not protecting the commons on our behalf. In Silent Theft , David Bollier exposes the audacious attempts of companies to appropriate medical breakthroughs, public airwaves, outer space, state research, and even the DNA of plants and animals. Amazingly, these abuses often go unnoticed, Bollier argues, because we have lost our ability to see the commons. Publicly funded technological innovations create common wealth (cell phone airwaves, internet addresses, gene sequences) at blinding speed, while an economic atmosphere of deregulation and privatization ensures they will be quickly bought and sold. In an age of market triumphalism, does the notion of the commons have any practical meaning? Crisp and revelatory, Silent Theft is a bold attempt to develop a new language of the commons, a new ethos of commonwealth in the face of a market ethic that knows no bounds. |
Contents
Reclaiming the Narrative of the Commons | 15 |
The Stubborn Vitality of the Gift Economy | 27 |
When Markets Enclose the Commons | 43 |
Varieties of Market Enclosure | 57 |
Enclosing the Commons of Nature | 59 |
The Colonization of Frontier Commons | 69 |
The Abuse of the Publics Natural Resources | 85 |
Can the Internet Commons Be Saved? | 99 |
The Giveaway of Federal Drug Research and Information Resources | 163 |
Protecting the Commons | 173 |
The Commons Another Kind of Property | 175 |
Strategies for Protecting the Commons | 189 |
Notes | 211 |
Bibliography | 247 |
About the Author | 251 |
| 253 | |
The Privatization of Public Knowledge | 119 |
Enclosing the Academic Commons | 135 |
The Commercialization of Culture and Public Spaces | 147 |
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Common terms and phrases
airwaves allow American ARPANET Bayh-Dole Act broadcasters civic claims collective commercial commodified Common Assets common-pool resources community gardens companies Congress consumer corporate create creative culture David Bollier democratic develop drug ecological economic ecosystem environmental ethical example federal forests free software funds genetic gift economy giveaway global human ICANN idea individual industry innovation institutions intellectual property interests Internet Internet commons Journal knowledge Law Review Lawrence Lessig Lewis Hyde licenses market enclosure ment Microsoft million National nature's services norms organic ownership patent percent political programs property rights proprietary protection public domain public lands public spaces public trust doctrine Reclaiming regime Science scientific seeds sell shared social society sponsored taxpayers technologies tion U.S. Forest Service U.S. government University Press users Washington wealth Wise Use movement Yochai Benkler York