"Sharing Nicely..."

Yale law professor Yochai Benkler describes the economics of social sharing systems which are greatly augmented by technology in "Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods and the Emergence of Sharing as a Modality of Economic Production." Drawing on literature of carpools, water resources, and even lobster fishermen, he describes the way renewable resources such as bandwidth, computer cycles, and wireless networks are instrumental in helping to make sharing a type of production. In particular see the section V. B. "information, knowledge and cultural production policy" for a discussion of file-sharing services like KaZaa or other 'sharing-based distribution systems. It was written before the Supreme Court judgments against such file-sharing systems. He has some interesting observations about Skype before it was purchased by eBay.