James Boyle is professor of law and co-founder of the Centre for
the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University and author of
The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind. In his new
book The Public Domain, Professor James Boyle describes how our
culture, science and economic welfare all depend on the delicate
balance between those ideas that are controlled and those that
are free, between intellectual property and the public domain
—the realm of material that everyone is free to use and share
without permission or fee Intellectual property laws have a
significant impact on many important areas of human endeavour,
including scientific innovation, digital creativity, cultural
access and free speech. And so Boyle argues that, just as every
informed citizen needs to know at least something about the
environment or civil rights, every citizen in the information
age should also have an understanding of intellectual property
law. Is the public domain as vital to knowledge, innovation and
culture as the r