Property Outlaws in Cyberspace and Meatspace - Examining the Relationship between Online Peer Production and Support for Private Property Violations - Abstract

Sep 15, 2026

Uploaded by Fez

Marxian theory treats private property as central to labor exploitation, since property laws enable owners of the means of production to appropriate surplus from the dispossessed. On the Internet, access often requires entering privately controlled digital enclosures, though “commons-based peer production” produces key resources without exclusive ownership claims. Survey data from Internet users at an East Coast university show only partial support: greater peer production predicts approval of violations of intangible intellectual property, but not tangible, real-world property violations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Conceptual Framework: Private Property and Online Enclosures

Commons-Based Peer Production and Property Legitimacy

Survey and Research Questions

Findings and Implications

tripleC 12(2): 876–890, 2014 [http://www.triple-c.at](http://www.triple-c.at) Property Outlaws in Cyberspace and Meatspace? Examining the Relationship between Online Peer Production and Support for Private Property Violations Timothy A . Gibson George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA, [tgibson1@gmu.edu](tgibson1@gmu.edu) Abstract: Marxian theory has long viewed the institution of private property as central to labour exploitation. After all, private property laws allow those who control the means of production to expropriate surplus value from the dispossessed. An analogous relationship arguably defines life on the Internet , where users are forced to venture onto privately owned digital enclosures to access key services. Yet these online property relationships are anything but settled and uncontested. Outside the digital enclosures of Apple and Google, the Internet has fostered the development of “commons-based peer production”, where key resources ([e.g. software](e.g. software)) are produced without anyone claiming exclusive property rights. In fact, some scholars have argued that the rise of peer production on the web has begun tore-shape popular attitudes concerning the legitimacy of property exclusions more broadly. In short, as we become“property outlaws”on the web, we come to question the inevitability and legitimacy of private property elsewhere in life. This paper explores this hypothesis by reporting data from a survey of Internet users at an East Coast university. Are users who engage in more peer production activities on the web also more likely to approve of “property outlaw”behaviours not just in the online context, but in the offline world as well (e.g. squatting)? The data provide only partial support for the hypothesis: active online peer producers were indeed more likely to support violations of intangible (intellectual) properties, but not violations of tangible or “real-world” properties. Keywords: Intellectual property, internet commons, online peer production, political ideology , Marxian theory Marxian theory has long viewed the institution of private property as central to the exploitation of labour in capitalism. After all, laws protecting private property allow those who control the means of production to expropriate surplus value from the propertyless and dispossessed. As Andrejevic (2007) argues, an analogous relationship increasingly defines life on the Internet , where users are forced to venture onto privately owned digital enclosures—think: Google, Apple, and Facebook—to access services that are fast becoming nonnegotiable and necessary for the conduct of everyday life. The price of access, of course, is submission to a regime of commercial surveillance and what Andrejevic (2003) aptly calls“the work of being watched”. Yet these online property relationships are anything but settled and uncontested. Outside these digital enclosures, the Internet has also fostered the development of what Yochai Benker (2006) calls “commons-based peer production”, where key resources ([e.g. software](e.g. software) ) are produced collectively without anyone claiming exclusive property rights. In fact, some scholars have argued that the rise of commons-based peer production on the web—along with other practices which directly challenge the sanctity of intellectual property (e.g. filesharing)—has begun to re-shape popular attitudes concerning the legitimacy of property exclusions more broadly. In short, as we become“property outlaws” on the web, we come to question the inevitability and legitimacy of private property elsewhere in life (Lessig 2008; Peñalver and Katyal 2010) . After a review of recent work on property relationships and struggles over intellectual property rights in the online context, this article explores this hypothesis—the more we become property outlaws online, the more we support property violations offline as well—by reporting opinion data from a survey of young Inter

FAQs

What central relationship does the paper investigate between online peer production and property violations?

It tests whether users who engage more in online peer production also show greater approval of “property outlaw” behaviors offline, including issues like squatting.

How does the paper describe the contrast between privately owned digital enclosures and commons-based peer production?

It argues that access to key online services often depends on privately controlled platforms, while commons-based peer production creates resources without exclusive ownership claims.

What do the survey results suggest about support for violations of intellectual versus real-world property?

The study finds partial support: heavier online peer producers are more likely to back violations of intangible intellectual property, but there is no significant relationship for real-world property outlaws overall.

Sep 15, 2026

Uploaded by Fez