James Boyle (born 1959[1]) is a Scottish intellectual property scholar. He is the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina.[2] He is most prominently known for advocating looser copyright policies in the United States and worldwide.
James Boyle | |
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Born | 1959 (age 65) Scotland |
Nationality | Scottish |
Citizenship | United Kingdom |
Education | |
Occupation(s) | Legal academic and author |
Employer | Duke University School of Law |
Known for | Creative Commons |
Notable work |
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Title | William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law |
Awards | Duke Bar Association Distinguished Teaching Award |
Website |
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Boyle graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1980 and subsequently studied at Harvard Law School.[1] He joined Duke University School of Law in July 2000.[3] He had previously taught at American University, Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
In 2002, he was one of the founding board members of Creative Commons,[4] and held the position of Chairman of the Board in 2009, after which he stepped down.[5][3] He also co-founded Science Commons, 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.[6]
In 2006, he earned the Duke Bar Association Distinguished Teaching Award.[3]
The courses he teaches include "Intellectual Property", "The Constitution in Cyberspace", "Law and Literature", "Jurisprudence", and "Torts".[3]
He is the author of Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and Construction of the Information Society[7] as well as a novel published under a Creative Commons license, The Shakespeare Chronicles.[8][9]
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.[10] It was also published under a non-commercial CC BY-NC-SA Creative Commons license.[11]
Boyle also contributes a column to the Financial Times New Technology Policy Forum.
In 2011, Boyle was one of five experts consulted for the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth, a comprehensive analysis of the United Kingdom's intellectual property system that made suggestions for data-driven reform of the system.[12]