Puncturing the Myth of the Internet as a Commons

The notion that the Internet is a commons has gone viral. It features prominently in military thinking, including a 2011 report issued by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is also prevalent in journalistic thinking, in regards to the challenges of Internet governance; two recent examples from prominent news outlets illustrate the point. Bill Davidow wrote an article entitled “The Tragedy of the Internet Commons” for The Atlantic in May 2012. Dominic Basulto wrote a blog entry for the Washington Post entitled “The ‘Doomsday’ Virus and the Tragedy of the Internet Commons” in July 2012. The notion of the Internet as a commons is also evident in the thinking of Internet activists and evangelists, perhaps most notably in the declaration of the Internet Society that “the Internet is for everyone.” Unfortunately, like many things that go viral, the idea of an Internet commons is also misleading. In its first section, this article will argue that the Internet does not possess key features associated with a commons, a concept drawn from the economics literature on the provision of public goods. The article will also assert that Internet commons arguments conflate a variety of issues with the core policy problem associated with commons management: the prevention of Mark Raymond is a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and has taught international relations at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo.