[P2P-F] Fwd: The anti-commons

Wed Jun 25 01:12:52 CEST 2014

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Week (Assai) <dew at assai.com.au>
Date: Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 2:46 PM
Subject: The anti-commons
To: Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>

Sorry, startups: Selling public parking places is illegal | TechHive
http://www.techhive.com/article/2366983/sorry-startups-selling-public-parking-places-is-illegal.html

The so-called sharing economy has had its share of head-scratchers. No one
wants to pay for your leftovers, no matter how much you’d like to monetize
your unused pizza assets. But this one takes the cake.

On Monday, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera had to issue a cease
and desist letter against a startup called MonkeyParking that enables its
users to auction off access to public parking places. Yes, public parking
places, on the street—spaces that belong to everyone and are illegal to
sell or rent. Duh. Of course they are.

Here’s how MonkeyParking works: I get in my car, which is legally parked at
a metered or unmetered parking spot. I don’t need that space any longer,
but instead of just driving away and leaving the space vacant for someone
else, I fire up the app and “publish” the space. Other users with the app
can see that about-to-be-vacant space, and name a price to entice me to
save the spot expressly for them. Someone could offer $10, I would accept,
and then I’d just sit in the space sending Slingshots or playing Candy
Crush until the mystery driver shows up, and only then would I pull out of
the parking space so he or she could take it. MonkeyParking handles the
transaction part, and presumably takes a cut, although those kinds of pesky
details are conveniently absentfrom both its website and the app itsel

-- 
*Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no
record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..*

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