A liberal infrastructure in a neoliberal world: the Italian case of GARR

Abstract

This paper aims to outline some issues concerning the interaction, in European Union law, between data policy, university regulation, open science, intellectual property and infrastructure policy. On the one hand, such issues primarily regard intellectual property: exclusive rights deriving from copyright and related rights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. On the other hand, they also concern forms of exclusive control on data that are not strictly related to intellectual property but enhanced by the control on technology and infrastructure. This exclusive control can accompany or be independent from the protection of intellectual property conferred by law. To make science open and to limit the market power of intellectual monopolies and oligopolies, restricting and reshaping intellectual property rights on data is not enough. It is also necessary to create or to revive public infrastructures and to implement open standards for texts, data, and code. An example of a public infrastructure for a university is the Italian consortium GARR, which during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to anchor the local debate about academic and teaching freedom to an actual and viable alternative, protecting independent and public knowledge not just de jure but de facto as well.