James Boyle['s] new book, “The Public Domain,” is a superb introduction to the subject. Underlying all property law is the question: How is wealth created? Obviously, every innovation has an individual component and a social component: inspiration plus tradition. Every original creation, Boyle observes, is “built from the resources of the public domain – language, culture, genre, scientific community, or what have you.” Artists and inventors must eat, so they must have enough control over their creations to reap some financial reward. But unlimited control could make their work unavailable to future artists and inventors, diminishing everyone’s welfare….Taking off from a masterly analysis of Ray Charles’s “I Got a Woman,” Boyle demonstrates that hardly any 20th-century American popular culture could have come into being under today’s copyright laws. He also shows that the Internet is a lucky fluke, which barely escaped being turned into a one-way, access-controlled, pay-per-view medium like cable TV. George Scialabba, The Boston Globe
[R]emarkable in many ways… As someone teaching a course annually on information policy, I welcome this clarity and the sheer enthusiasm and humor of this simply delightful book… Anyone with even the slightest interest in intellectual property, government policy, and the Internet should read this book. Highly, highly recommended! Edward J. Valauskas, Book review First Monday, Volume 14
, Number 1 – 5 January 2009
The Public Domain is effortlessly lucid and downright witty in places, making it perfect for those living and working outside the ivory tower….One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the way that Boyle uses the metaphor of the commons – specifically, the one that intellectual monopolies are now enclosing – to make a plea for an “environmentalism for information” that will help preserve that commons just as environmentalism in the physical world seeks urgently to preserve the physical commons.. Glyn Moody, ComputerworldUK
“Boyle has been the godfather of the Free Culture Movement since his extraordinary book, Shamans, Software, and Spleens set the framework for the field a decade ago. In this beautifully written and subtly argued book, Boyle has succeeded in resetting that framework, and beginning the work in the next stage of this field. The Public Domain is absolutely crucial to understanding where the debate has been, and where it will go. And Boyle”s work continues to be at the center of that debate.” Lawrence Lessig, C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, Stanford Law School and author of Free Culture and The Future of Ideas
“..one of the most articulate, thoughtful, funny and passionate thinkers in the global fight for free speech, open access, and a humane and sane policy on patents, trademarks and copyrights. A legal scholar who can do schtick like a stand-up comedian, Boyle is entertaining as well as informative.” Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
“In this delightful volume, Professor Boyle gives the reader a masterful tour of the intellectual property wars, the fight over who will control the information age, pointing the way toward the promise-and peril-of the future. A must read for both beginner and expert alike!” Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia
“Boyle is one of the world”s major thinkers on the centrality of the public domain to the production of knowledge and culture. He offers a comprehensive and biting critique of where our copyright and patent policy has gone, and prescriptions for how we can begin to rebalance our law and practice. It is the first book I would give to anyone who wants to understand the causes, consequences, and solutions in the debates over copyrights, patents, and the public domain of the past decade and a half.” Yochai Benkler, Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School
