James Boyle (born 1959) is a Scottish

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

scholar. He is the

William Neal Reynolds William Neal Reynolds (March 22, 1863 – September 10, 1951) was a U.S. sportsman and businessman with R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which was founded by his brother R. J. Reynolds. Early life Born in Patrick County, Virginia, Reynolds went ...

Professor of Law and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at

Duke University School of Law Duke University School of Law (Duke Law School or Duke Law) is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit t ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. He is most prominently known for his advocating for loosening copyright policies in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and worldwide.

Teaching and activism

Boyle graduated from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1980 and subsequently studied at Harvard Law School. He joined Duke University School of Law in July 2000.Biography
at

He had previously taught at American University,

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, Harvard, and the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

. In 2002, he was one of the founding board members of Creative Commons, and held the position of Chairman of the Board in 2009, after which he stepped down. He also co-founded

Science Commons Science Commons (SC) was a Creative Commons project for designing strategies and tools for faster, more efficient web-enabled scientific research. The organization's goals were to identify unnecessary barriers to research, craft policy guidelin ...

, which aims to expand the Creative Commons mission into the realm of scientific and technical data, and ccLearn, a division of Creative Commons aimed at facilitating access to

open education resources Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" describes publicly accessible materials and r ...

.Biography
on Boyle's official website. Retrieved 15 March 2009. In 2006, he earned the Duke Bar Association Distinguished Teaching Award. The courses he teaches include "Intellectual Property", "The Constitution in Cyberspace", "Law and Literature", "Jurisprudence", and "

Tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

s".

Written works

He is the author of ''Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and Construction of the Information Society'' as well as a novel published under a Creative Commons license, ''The Shakespeare Chronicles''. In his work on intellectual property, ''The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind'' (2008), Boyle argues that the current system of copyright protections fails to fulfill the original intent of copyright: rewarding and encouraging creativity. It was also published under a non-commercial CC BY-NC-SA

Creative Commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...

. Boyle also contributes a column to the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' New Technology Policy Forum. In 2011, Boyle was one of five experts consulted for the ''

Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth Hargreaves is a surname, and may refer to: * Aaron Hargreaves (born 1986), Canadian football player * Adam Hargreaves (born 1963), British author of children's books & son of Roger Hargreaves * Alberto Hargreaves, (born 1929) Portuguese architect ...

'', a comprehensive analysis of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's intellectual property system that made suggestions for data-driven reform of the system."(When) Is Copyright Reform Possible? Lessons from the Hargreaves Review" by James Boyle (2015)
/ref>

Selected publications

* ''Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and Construction of the Information Society'',

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

1997, * ''The Public Domain'' (ed), Winter/Spring 2003 edition of ''Law and Contemporary Problems'' (vol 66, ##1–2),

* '' Bound by Law? Tales from the Public Domain '', Duke University Center for the Study of the Public Domain 2006, * ''Cultural Environmentalism @ 10'' (ed, with

Lawrence Lessig Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...

), Spring 2007 edition of ''Law and Contemporary Problems'' (vol 70, #2), Duke University School of Law ** ''Cultural Environmentalism and Beyond'' * ''The Shakespeare Chronicles: A Novel'', Lulu Press 2006, * ''Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind'',

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

2008, * ''Theft: A History of Music'', CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2017,

References

External links

*
Biography
at

*
''The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind''
2008
RSA Vision webcast – James Boyle on "The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind"
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, James 1959 births 20th-century Scottish educators 21st-century Scottish educators Access to Knowledge activists Alumni of the University of Glasgow American legal scholars Computer law scholars Copyright scholars Copyright activists Creative Commons Creative Commons-licensed authors Duke University School of Law faculty Harvard Law School alumni Harvard Law School faculty Living people British male essayists Male novelists Scottish male writers Place of birth missing (living people) Scottish columnists Scottish emigrants to the United States Scottish legal professionals Scottish legal scholars University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni