“Culture is anti-rivalrous. The more people know and sing a song, the more cultural value it has. The more people watch my film Sita Sings the Blues, or read my comic strip Mimi & Eunice, the happier I’ll be, so please go do that now and then come back and read the rest of this paragraph. The more people know a movie or TV show, the more cultural value it has. Monty Python references attest to the cultural value of Monty Python – we even use the word ‘spam’ because of it. Shakespeare’s works are culturally valuable, and phrases from them live on in the language even apart from the plays (‘I think she doth protest to much,’ etc.). The more people refer to Monty Python and Shakespeare, the more you just gotta see em, amiright? Or not, it doesn’t matter whether you see them, you’re already speaking them…Cultural works increase in value the more people use them. That’s not rivalrous, or non-rivalrous; that’s anti-rivalrous.”
—At Techdirt, Nina Paley, cartoonist/animator/free culture champion, breaks down culture as anti-rivalrous with metaphors and cartoons, all while giving readers a lesson on rivalrous and non-rivalrous goods. Also read her addendum, “Why do I say Culture is not a Commons?“
