Finding Common Ground

The tragedy of the commons holds that “multiple individuals acting independently in their own self-interest can ultimately destroy a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long term interest for this to happen.”
There is a crucial difference however between the notion of the commons as a wide open free for all, and that of it as a managed, albeit communal resource. The problem is fundamentally one of human behaviour, rather than a deficiency in the idea of the commons as the shared heritage of any particular group.
And yet the advocates who propose greater private property rights as a solution to the tragedy of the commons always neglect to answer a basic question of access- just who should own that resource, and under what rights. In other words, how are we to avoid disparities in access from becoming tools of opression, as they clearly have throughout history?
Obviously, once privatized, a commons is no longer common.
If we accept the basic tenents of the problem (which some do not), is the only antidote really the restrictive effects of private ownership? Afterall, under what basis can someone claim a right of ownership that is not merely a financial stake? And does this stake serve any better to protect the resource, which should be the penultimate concern, or simply hasten its final exploitation?
Are we as a species really that incapable of acting in mutual self-interest? Surely we can come up with alternative arrangements that satisfy both the requirements of individual users, and the need to preserve the resource.
More importantly, we come face to face with the question of what exactly constitues the commons in the first place. What is its role in the future of human survival?
How far do we extend the reality of a commons: to the biosphere, outerspace, culture, genes?
It is in the formulation of these questions of limits that the battle between corporate intrests and human intrests are thrown most sharply into relief.The ongoing struggles for the creative commons, open technology, and the free flow of information will come to define the next decade, and will determine how much of the world and its content remains accessible to everyone.