[A2k] Jamie Boyle's new book: The Public Domain, Enclosing the Commons of the Mind

[Manon Ress]

Jamie Boyle has a new book out.  It's available online (CC License)
for free and commercially see link.

http://www.thepublicdomain.org/

quote:
Our music, our culture, our science, and our economic welfare all
depend on a delicate balance between those ideas that are controlled
and those that are free, between intellectual property and the public
domain. In The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind James
Boyle introduces readers to the idea of the public domain and
describes how it is being tragically eroded by our current copyright,
patent, and trademark laws. In a series of fascinating case studies,
Boyle explains why gene sequences, basic business ideas and pairs of
musical notes are now owned, why jazz might be illegal if it were
invented today, why most of 20th century culture is legally
unavailable to us, and why today=92s policies would probably have
smothered the World Wide Web at its inception. Appropriately given its
theme, the book will be sold commercially but also made available
online for free under a Creative Commons license.

Boyle=92s book is a clarion call. In the tradition of the environmental
movement, which first invented and then sought to protect something
called =93the environment,=94 Boyle hopes that we can first understand and
then protect the public domain =96 the ecological center of the
=93information environment.=94

With a clear analysis of issues ranging from Thomas Jefferson=92s
philosophy of innovation to musical sampling, from Internet file
sharing and genetic engineering to patented peanut butter sandwiches,
this articulate and charming book brings a positive new perspective to
important cultural and legal debates, including what Boyle calls the
=93range wars of the information age=94: today=92s heated battles over
intellectual property. Intellectual property rights have been viewed
as geeky, technical and inaccessible. Boyle shows that, as a culture,
we can no longer afford the luxury of this kind of willed ignorance.
The =93enclosure of the commons of the mind=94 matters and it matters to
all of us. =93Boyle 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,=94 says Lawrence Lessig,  =93In 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=92s work
continues to be at the center of that debate.=94



***************************************************************************
Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673