The Third Enclosure Movement

The first Enclosure Movement was in olde England. The second, as James Boyle observes, is going on around us, among the domains of digital content.

There is a Third Enclosure Movement underway. It’s the enclosure of the parking commons.

If I shovel the parking spot, do I own the parking spot?

Or is shoveling a public good? Do we need to grant shovelers’ rights to generate the right incentives to clear the streets?

Suppose I park a motorcycle on the snow of an unshoveled parking spot, in order to prevent someone else from shoveling and claiming that spot. If that someone else hacks the bike to move it, then shovels the spot, can I sue him — even if the bike isn’t taken or harmed, and even if the parking spot wasn’t really mine in the first place?

UPDATE: Donna points me to Frank Field’s post from last spring, DRM is a folding chair.