Abundance/Scarcity

The dichotomy between abundance and scarcity is introduced by contrasting the price of cultural collector items or the very limited number of TV channels available at the outset with the ease of downloading digital copies and the multiplicity of TV and online channels. When it comes to culture and knowledge, the idea of the Commons is powerful and also denotes that all and everyone should have access to the same information, knowledge, and cultural resources. With regards to media and communication, we can also refer in this regard to the idea of the public domain. Debates in this context tend to be connected to those concerning universal human rights and more specific communication rights. From this perspective, copyright is the imposition of an artificial scarcity on media content and cultural expressions. It is shown how copyright law was tailored, extended, and put in place to enable the long-term commodification of culture, but at the same it also puts a limit to it, ensuring that the public domain persists. The internet and the digital age has, yet again, fundamentally disrupted capitalist strategies to protect and maintain the copyright hegemony, heralding a new age of abundance when it comes to free access to information, knowledge, and culture. At the same time, as also seen in other cases, capitalism and scarcity also strikes back and attempts to re-establish itself.