A commercial economy is on in which the basic tenants of a market, in which products and services have a tangible vale, such as money or service. Sites such as Amazon, Netflix, and EB Games follow this form of economy, as each provides goods/services in echange for monetary gain.
A sharing economy is one in which information and services are user generated by users with no tangible compensation for the work put into the product. They do so in order to benefit themselves, such as a feeling of satisfaction or notoriety, or to benefit others by spreading information and ideas. A good example of such an economy would be Wikipedia, where the information provided is user generated, with no money being exchanged for the service provided. Another example would be the various fan-sites dedicated to popular media, which are done to express affection for said media and to connect with those of like interest, all for free.
This distinction matters to Lessig's argument because it sets the foundation of his proposal for a hybrid economy, in which the expression of the shared is combined with the incentive of the commercial. Neither one can survive without the other, and Lessig argues that a compromised fusion of both would be the ideal outcome in order to take full advantage of modern technology.
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