I beni comuni nell’età della rimaterializzazione. L’Internet delle Cose fra apertura e resistenza collettiva

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) heralds an era of unprecedented opportunities for capitalists to deploy new extractive practices leading to a third enclosure of the commons. The reason for that is what we call ‘rematerialisation’, namely the incorporation of immaterial goods (software, data, digital contents, even services) into material ones, which gives rise to a new category of hybrid good: the ‘smart’ device. As the world – including its most private spaces i.e., the home and the body – become embedded with sensors and actuators, IoT companies can extend their techno-legal power (stemming from a combination of contracts, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), technological protection measures, and factual controls) to each component of our ‘smart’ devices and systems. Knowledge being a commons, these powers lead to a tragedy of the anti-commons well illustrated by the transformation of our entire existence into data flows that are appropriated, re-used, and monetised by the ‘smart’ capitalists. Against this backdrop, this article sets forth a strategy to counter this enclosure by relying on the commons in the twofold sense of openness and a movement revolving around collective practices of resistance.