At first, I found this concept of non-rivalrous and rivalrous resources difficult to grasp. Garcelon describes rivalrous resources as being limited in relation to their use by potential users (2009). In contrast, non rivalrous resources are unrestricted and unlimited, with no danger of being depleted through their use by users (Garcelon, 2009).
After thinking through these definitions, I struggled to classify file sharing and the downloading of MP3’s from p2p networks into one of these two categories. Is my music library classified as a non rivalrous or rivalrous resource?
If an MP3 is available for downloading on the internet at no cost and can be copied rather than taken from one user’s computer to another, then there is no danger of the resource being depleted as it can be copied/shared millions of times. If there limitation or restriction to the number of copies that can be made without being detrimental to the original, this particular MP3 source would be classified as non rivalrous.
Because of this, laws about copyright and piracy being applied to and coming into effect in cyberspace becomes complicated.
laurengasparini 
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