This talk has been presented by Marco Ciurcina, during the 2019 edition with the thematic “Legal aspects of digital commons”.

Digital commons: from software to personal data, licenses and other legal techniques

There are many controversies over the the “correct” definition of a digital common, but it is hard to deny that some free software artefacts are dgital commons : the Linux kernel, the Debian distribution, the LibreOffice suite, etc. Free software communities have thus shown the way for the development of digital commons extended to other areas: Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap are good examples. There are many aspects to these commons, but managing the legal aspects of intangible property is at the heart of the problem. Free software licences are a good example. We will know in the future what the characteristics of future digital commons will be. At the moment, it is simply possible to point out a problem that could raise new legal solutions for the construction of digital commons.

About Marco Ciurcina :

Lawyer, Studiolegale.it

Marco is an Italian lawyer, working in the field of commercial and contractual law, Information Technology law, Copyright, Patent, Trademark, and Privacy law, particularly, with special focus on free software licenses, open content and open data. He teaches “Law and ethics of communication” at the Politecnico di Torino, Faculty of Information Science. Free software and digital freedoms activist.