circle.ch :: What do we call the commons in Switzerland?

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07. February 2004

What do we call the commons in Switzerland?
Government (wiki) | Intellectual Property (wiki) - urs @ 18:42:30

After diving into Benkler, Lessig and other reads [1,2], I was wondering what the "commons" would correspond to in the German language and specifically to a Swiss legal term. The dictonary did not help. Illustrative examples for the commons are the public roads, the places, the woods and if you turn more technically e.g. the radio frequency spectrum. The government does have its fingers on them but grants access for the public for some of these resources.

As for example for public places in Switzerland there are three levels of intensity of usage. People can easily walk or chat with others on public places ("schlichter Gemeingebrauch") as long as they do not allocate the place just for them selfs. If they want to gather for a political demonstration [3], the utilization corresponds to a second level ("gesteigerter Gemeingebrauch"). The intesity of a certain activity at this level is usually at such a strength where others get disturbed and therefore one basically needs to be authorized. Finally and thirdly, an exclusive activity ("Sondernutzung") does require a concession.

Here we speak of "öffentliche Sachen" - probably best translated with "public property" . So commons from my point of view could be described as "öffentliche Sachen" or "öffentliche Güter" or maybe even better as "Gemeingut".

[1] http://www.benkler.org/Pub.html
[2] http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/lessigkeynote.pdf
[3] http://jumpcgi.bger.ch/cgi-bin/JumpCGI?id=BGE_127_I_164

Related post(s):

Creative Commons Switzerland online (7.34)
How to describe DRM? (6.36)
Switzerland - Creative Commons License Drafts in French and Italian (6.35)
LOTS 2005 - Call for Participation (5.84)
Creative Commons by-nc-sa draft for Switzerland (5.68)

Related tags(s):

media, academic, creative_commons, technology, talks

Comments (5) Permalink del.icio.us

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Comment by Hannes Gassert @ 2004-02-07 20:59:16:

I agree, "Gemeingut" seems to describe the notion pretty well. To my non-juristic ears "Allgemeingut" sounds a bit better, I guess it still fits?
I suggest you ask the LEO Forum: http://www.leo.org/cgi-bin/dict/forum/forum.cgi

Best regards,
Hannes

Comment by Roger @ 2004-02-09 11:37:25:
It would be interesting to trace that back etymologically to the "Allmend" and the "Gemeinde".

Comment by Urs @ 2004-02-09 15:42:56:

There is a relation to "Allmend":

Lessig spricht von der "Commons" [als] der mittelalterlichen Gemeinschaftsweide, die jedem offen stehen müsse [1]

[1] Rolf H. Weber, Traditionelles Urheberrecht: Sprengstoff für die Informationsgesellschaft? - in: Schriften zum Medien- und Immaterialgüterrecht, Stämpfli Verlag AG, 2002

Comment by far away, long time ago @ 2004-02-16 09:35:40:

follow my backtrackings -- parse my mind
i really appreciates to google around the different collectives from which i'm part of, or which are quite near me trough some strange **real** connections... sometimes you find some really interesting stuff

Comment by Red @ 2004-05-19 00:44:48:
i was wondering...
if the real name of switzerland is Confoederatio Helvetica, then how did the U.S. come up with calling it Switzerland?

Comment by Urs @ 2004-05-19 01:13:48:

Good point. Well, I found an explanation in a Swiss Historical Lexicon [1]:

Confoederatio helvetica

Offizieller lat. Name der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft . Der Ausdruck gehört offenbar nicht zu den früheren Bezeichnungen der Eidgenossenschaft. Er wurde nach der Schaffung des Bundesstaates 1848 eingeführt, entweder aus prakt. Gründen oder um im amtl. Verkehr keine der Landessprachen zu bevorzugen. Seit 1879 findet er sich auf Münzen, seit 1902 am Frontgiebel des Bundeshauses in Bern und seit 1948 auch auf dem Siegel der Eidgenossenschaft. Er wird zudem seit 1995 als Titel im Internetauftritt der Bundesverwaltung verwendet. Die Abkürzung CH hat sich v.a. seit dem internat. Übereinkommen von 1909 über die Zulassung von Kraftfahrzeugen als Kurzbezeichnung für die Schweiz und alles Schweizerische eingebürgert. In der Schweiz wird sie in den Medien und in der Werbung auch zur Bezeichnung von Schweizer Produkten, Veranstaltungen und Veröffentlichungen gebraucht.

Especially the abbreviation of Confoederatio Helvetica (CH) is nowadays used on number plates for cars and as you can see above as Toplevel Domain for Switzerland. Confoederatio Helvetica is simply the official latin name for "Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft". The CIA factbook page for Switzerland does not even mention this expression [2]. But it is part of the name of the Governments website [3].

[1] http://www.lexhist.ch/externe/protect/textes/d/D9827.html
[2] http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/sz.html
[3] http://www.admin.ch

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