Since the conclusion of the GATT Uruguay Round, both the content of human intellectual activity and its dissemination have undergone an ongoing process of commodification. However, given that the international agreements still leave considerable room for maneuver, the commodification course does not appear to be an inevitable consequence of transnational law-making. This special issue thus addresses important questions that arise around knowledge commodification and its countercurrents in the Southern hemisphere, and poses the following questions: Which approaches are put forward and for which reasons? Whose interests are at stake? In what way do nation states have an impact on the adopted approaches? What is the role of transnational actors? Although the presented articles cannot answer these questions definitively, this special issue offers a snapshot of a broad range of dynamics that may give rise to an information society in the Global South.