I was contemplating the nature of copyright as a commons today (not that I’m the first), and it occurred to me that it might make more sense to think of copyright as a technology policy. This may make it possible to equate it to other cases of information/transportation commons structures. If copyright is thought of this way, perhaps we can re-think how our we might transform the subsidizing of creative work. Taxing the gas that goes into cars (and the cars themselves) might be equated to mandatory licensing or taxes on blank media. Users and creators both benefit from this commons, and questions of lost revenue and easy/cheap access to entertainment media might be answered if we think of how information can be best fit to our media landscape. Technological locks are a possible way to enforce the law, but this idea seems eerily like putting speed regulators on our cars. We could try to change the norms of copying, so that the law is more respected, but this could be nearly unworkable given current technology and copying habits. My first thought is that this leaves only the tax option. It’s not one that anyone would like, but at least it’s a compromise. This issue certainly deserves some creative thinking.