To get the most benefit, Mr Frischmann argues, We should share infrastructure resources in an open, non-discriminatory manner when it is feasible to do so. This does not necessarily rule out property rights; but it does mean avoiding the temptation to treat everything as if it were a physical bauble in which only a single owner had an inter mechanisms History shows that custom and practice, social norms and other non-market can keep commons from becoming tragic under a wide range of circumstances Mr Boyle makes similar points when he writes, in his book"The Public Domain' that societies need to strike'a balance between open and closed, owned and free. It is his contention, and that of the rest of the net movement, that governments are systematically getting this balance wrong They are stuck in the physical world where most goods are rival and cannot be easily shared, he argues Their critics contend that the activists make the same mistake in reverse, thinking everything can be shared and ownership need not matter at all. thinking explains what drives many net activists they prize an ideal of net neutralty turning the internet into a toh road that limits both expression and because experimentation; they fear overb patents wil hamper research; they think making government data freely available stimulates new uses. This insight helps explain the seeming grab-bag of issues that passes for a political programme in Germany's Pirate demands for free public transport, the right to vote for foreigners living in Party-including Germany and a state-funded basic income for all, These proposals apply the idea of an information commons to what the Pirates see as platforms' of all sorts public transport. elections and society as a whole. The degree to which the internet is new and different is also reflected in the net movements practicalities The internet fundamentally lowers the barriers to organisation, says Kevin Werbach, who teaches atthe University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School Like-minded souls no longer need painstakingly to build a organisational structure; a mailing list is often enough to band together online Dissolving democracy The ant-soPA protest started with discussions on blogs and elsewhere, according to Harvard's Mr Benkler, whose research team has analysed the content of online publications and links between activist websites. Techdirt, a blog. and other specialised online publications wrote about the new legislation. As people gotinterested, the more established advocacy groups such as the EFF and Public Knowledge came to serve as clearing-houses for information. Groups such as Avaaz, Fight For The Future and Demand Progress, whose aim is to mobilise netizens, started offering tools to help people signal their displeasure, including by writing to members of Congress: millions ended up using them. Internet firms such as Reddit and Tumblr provided organisational support, and larger companies were part of the lobbying effort net-activists are less likely than Greens to shun corporate interests that coincide with their own After fierce debate among its peer producers, Wikipedia joined the campaign, greatly increasing its impact Germany's Pirate Party flashed into existence with similar speed. A few weeks before the 2011 elections in Berlin pollsters gave it only a few percentage points. But with a minimum of resources, it managed to mount an efficient campaign using social media to