ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that there are profound similarities between the first enclosure movement and the contemporary expansion of intellectual property, which call the second enclosure movement. But if there are similarities between our two enclosures, there are also profound dissimilarities; the networked commons of the mind has many different characteristics from the grassy commons of Old England. The chapter presents the incentives/collective action problems to which intellectual property is a response. The intellectual property skeptics had other concerns. Macaulay was particularly worried about the power that went with a transferable and inheritable monopoly. Here, an affirmative argument for the public domain was put forward, rather than a mere criticism of intellectual property. It is the claim that their intellectual property rights over fundamental standards with strong positive network effects give them too much power to control the course of innovation.
