Search

International audience; This chapter traces the evolution of legal conditions meant to support the production and flourishing of “commons-based peer production” in a diversity of fields covered by copyright, mostly in the digital realm. From software to creative works, including scientific articles, cultural heritage, public sector information, and open data, a wealth of digital, knowledge, intellectual or information commons can be peer produced. The rules which guarantee that they can remain in the commons, under open conditions, have been the subject of heated debates about the politics of technology and heavy legal fine-tuning along the years, opposing different definitions and nuances in openness reflecting underlying philosophies within the peer production political economy, such as liberal and commons-based approaches.

International audience; This chapter traces the evolution of legal conditions meant to support the production and flourishing of “commons-based peer production” in a diversity of fields covered by copyright, mostly in the digital realm. From software to creative works, including scientific articles, cultural heritage, public sector information, and open data, a wealth of digital, knowledge, intellectual or information commons can be peer produced. The rules which guarantee that they can remain in the commons, under open conditions, have been the subject of heated debates about the politics of technology and heavy legal fine-tuning along the years, opposing different definitions and nuances in openness reflecting underlying philosophies within the peer production political economy, such as liberal and commons-based approaches.

International audience; This chapter examines claims that peer production can address the social harms of neoliberal capitalism as well as the democratic failures of the centralized state. It distinguishes distributed and self‐governed politics which take place outside the conventional arena of parties and elections from those which directly engage with this conventional arena. The chapter reviews how different categories of peer producers engage in prefigurative political action. In contrast to the constitution of autonomous enclaves outside of conventional politics, a second type of peer‐produced politics engages with conventional politics in the form of parties, campaigning, and presenting lists of candidates for election. The chapter explains why many radical thinkers have considered peer production as the germ of a postcapitalist future. It then critically engages with this vision, arguing that peer production projects are often intertwined with neoliberal digital capitalism, and that commoners regularly fail to address the questions raised by unpaid voluntary labor.