Keeping it Common
What do air, water, public space, seeds and genes have in common? The answer is – patents. Increasingly in this day and age, corporations are whacking patents on everything they can, privatizing these aspects of our lives… and selling them back to us. If you take kids hanging out in a street mall – there’s generally no problem, because streets are public space, but for example kids hanging out in a Westfield shopping centre can be moved along because it’s actually private property. So why should we be thinking about these things? Because there should be some aspects of our life that are kept out of the marketplace – these things are for everyone to use. Last week the Sydney Social Forum was held at the University of Technology Sydney and amongst all the forums and workshops, The Commons Institute was launched. Convenor of the Commons Institute, James Arvanitakis, explained the threats to commons in Australia today.