On December 8th this year Yale University Press published:
The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle.
Both the author and publisher have agreed to make this book available, exactly
as it was published less than 2 weeks ago, as a .pdf download for FREE.
You can get the book for free HERE - the Official site
And some early Reviews:
While it's unfashionable to engage in this manner I remain steadfast against cynicism - no matter even, "left hung out to dry", as the expression goes, often enough to know who & when to treat in kind and yet, in the end, that too is revealing fodder of "character" and how sad & disposable it's absence is... so why exacerbate the "albatross" 'round the neck of the Lilly-livered, I say.
"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
"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
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