The Prosecution of Aaron: A Response to Orin Kerr

Aaron Swartz committed suicide last week.  He was 26, a genius and my friend.  Not a really good friend, but someone I had worked with off and on for 11 years, liked a lot, had laughed with frequently, occasionally shaken my head over and deeply admired. › read more

Friday, January 18th, 2013 Uncategorized 36 Comments

The Hargreaves Review

An Intellectual Property System for the Internet Age

James Boyle

In November 2010, the Prime Minister commissioned a review of the Britain’s intellectual property laws and their effect on economic growth, quoting the founders of Google that “they could never have started their company in Britain” because of a lack of flexibility in British copyright..  Mr. Cameron wanted to see if we could have UK intellectual property laws “fit for the Internet age.”   Today the Review will be published. Its conclusion?  “Could it be true that laws designed more than three centuries ago with the express purpose of creating economic incentives for innovation by protecting creators’ rights are today obstructing innovation and economic growth?  The short answer is: yes.” Those words are from Professor Ian Hargreaves, head of the Review.   (Full disclosure: I was on the Review’s panel of expert advisors.) › read more

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 Uncategorized 13 Comments

Keith Aoki — A Remembrance Book

A slideshow and downloadable book remembering Keith in words and pictures.  You can order a glossy, high quality copy of the book itself here from Createspace or here from Amazon.  We tried to make it as beautiful as something Keith would create.  We failed. But we came close; have a look at how striking it is… all because of Keith’s art. › read more

Thursday, May 5th, 2011 Uncategorized 3 Comments

Now THAT is how you teach a class

› read more

Thursday, April 28th, 2011 Uncategorized 2 Comments

RIP, Keith Aoki

Our friend, colleague, co-author and brilliant artist and scholar Keith Aoki died yesterday in his house in Sacramento.  He was 55 years old. › read more

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 Uncategorized 41 Comments

The Future of the Constitution?

The Brookings Institution has organized a volume on “The Future of the Constitution” edited by Jeff Rosen and Benjamin Wittes and featuring articles by me, Larry Lessig, Jonathan Zittrain, Tim Wu and many others.  How will our constitutional tradition deal with the challenges posed by new technologies?  The topics range from possible personhood claims by artificial intelligences, to the future of free speech and the Net, to neuroscience and criminal punishment.  The essays are freely available online. Details after the jump. › read more

Friday, March 11th, 2011 Uncategorized No Comments

Presumed Guilty

My new FT column is up. Shakespeare, copyright, Scott Turow and a shadowy group of law professors..  What could be more fun? Ungated version after the jump.  › read more

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 Uncategorized 1 Comment

Waiting for ‘Waiting for Godot’

What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2011? › read more

Saturday, January 1st, 2011 Uncategorized No Comments

Fantasy & Reality in Intellectual Property Policy

My new column for the FT is up.  It deals with the incredible weakness of the data on which our intellectual property policy proceeds.   Ungated version after the jump

› read more

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 Uncategorized 2 Comments

CBC Radio Interview on the History of Copyright

Nora Young and the folk at CBC’s Spark have done it again, with a really nicely presented episode that includes a feature on copyright.  Nora interviews me about the history of copyright…  in 5 minutes.

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

Follow thepublicdomain on Twitter.

Comic

read

Get my new book

the book


› Buy the book on Amazon
› Download the book

Recent Posts

 

Pages

Archived Posts

Meta