The comedy of the commons

As will appear, service to commerce was a central factor in defining as "public" such properties as roads and waterways. Used in commerce, some property had qualities akin to infinite "returns to scale." Thus here, the commons was not tragic, but comedic, in the classical sense of a story with a happy outcome.

Carol Rose, The Comedy of the Commons: Custom, Commerce, and Inherently Public Property, University of Chicago Law Review 53, no. 3 (1986): 711–781. PDF.