Knowledge caught between conflicting interests: the commons and protection of intellectual property in light tragedy anticommons

The ever-increasing expansion of copyright regulations and the commercialisation of knowledge that often accompanies it is perceived by many as unfair, and alternative methods of accessing knowledge are being developed. The knowledge industry, in turn, sees its exploitation rights threatened by alternative models such as the exchange of information via peer-to-peer communications and attempts to enforce even stricter controls or technical barriers, for example through digital rights management. This, in turn, is seen as a threat to the global knowledge commons. This thesis examines and analyses the tension between the excessive protection of knowledge through copyright and the resulting counter-movements, using the economic models of the 'tragedy of the commons' and its mirror image, the 'tragedy of the anti-commons'.