"Cultural Commons"

I don't know if it's the program that I'm in that has made me more aware of my New Media 'language', but being that I already read some of Howard Rheingold's "Smart Mobs" and have read countless articles about similar subjects, it kind of annoys me when someone misuses the term "Cultural Commons".

Boing Boing used it in this article.

"So there you have it: the MPAA has ripped, mixed and burned a phrase out of the cultural commons -- they appropriated it, reversed the meaning it had been imbued with by its copyfighting popularizer, and put it out there, not even bothering to credit Lewis or Barlow. Sly old MPAA."

My understanding of "Cultural Commons" is that it represents a common good that many people contribute to, and a large number of people benifit from, whether they contribute or not. Like for instance, Bittorrent (and this comes up a lot): many people download but not everyone uploads or seeds.

Given this, although I can understand the context (a quote from a famous IP abolitionist), does the song necessarily describe that? The song isn't part of "Cultural Commons"- it's a song. And even if it was, the irony is, it would technically be okay for anyone to quote from it..? I think it was just his phrasing that got me, but I understand his frustration.

It reminds me of that commerical I saw once (might have been a car commercial- I can't remember) that was very patriotic and it used a clip from CCR's "It Ain't Me"- the irony here being that the song was railing against how easy it was for the upper class to be patriotic. I remember Doug went crazy when he saw that 'cause he's such a CCR fan.

Anyway just blabbing some thoughts down.

ps, if you wanna see the MPAA in action, here ya go.