Opening the Commons of the Mind: Can We Free Our Culture From Onerous Ownership?

Is the commons of the mind being enclosed and constrained by recent changes to copyright law and the patent system? What can we do about it? How can we re-open the commons of the mind? Has the ownership system inherent in intellectual property become so onerous that it inhibits culture, creativity, and innovation? How can we mitigate the damaging effects of onerous ownership on our culture?

This discussion will explore various approaches to balancing intellectual property with freely and creatively building our cultural heritage. How can we better assert the rights of The Public Domain, Fair Use, our cultural commons and our cultural heritage against an ever encroaching system of intellectual property?

We will explore the promise and potential of various solutions that are now available including the Creative Commons (an initiative to use copyright to defend the public domain), The Documentary Filmmakers (an initiative to establish "fair use" best practices), the Free Software and Free and Open Source Software movements (an initiative to use copyright to create and protect a commons of sharing for software), the idea of starting something like an environmental movement to defend our cultural commons from encroachment by rights holders, and other efforts to open the commons of our minds.

My lead resource in preparing for this discussion was James Boyle's insightful (but sometimes convoluted) exploration of our patent, copyright, and trademark system in his book The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (2008). I recommend reading the preface and chapters 1 & 2 for background information which explain the basics of intellectual property and copyright law. For this discussion, most of our focus will be on chapter 8 "A Creative Commons" (http://yupnet.org/boyle/archives/169) and 10 "An Environmentalism for Information" (http://yupnet.org/boyle/archives/189).

Download a free copy of Boyle's book "The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind" (2008). (http://www.thepublicdomain.org/download/) The book can also be purchased from your favorite bookseller.

http://www.thepublicdomain.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/publicdomaincover1.jpg

Other recommended resources:

• The exquisite "Everything is a Remix" series by Kirby Ferguson

• "Everything is a Remix: Part 1", a 7 minute video:

http://vimeo.com/14912890

• Everything is a Remix: Part 2", a 10 minute video:

http://vimeo.com/19447662

• Everything is a Remix: Part 3", a 11 minute video:

http://vimeo.com/25380454

• Everything is a Remix: Part 4", a 15 minute video:

http://vimeo.com/36881035

• Powerful 3 Minute video by Jason Silva on "Radical Openness":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEWaBlSSUgw

This is the third discussion in a series on James Boyle's book "The Public Domain". The first focused on intellectual property in general with some extra attention to patents (https://www.meetup.com/thinkingsociety/events/190206032/). The second was on the copyright system (https://www.meetup.com/thinkingsociety/events/202762302/). This discussion will consider solutions to the problem of enclosing the commons of the mind including a solution which James Boyle is actively involved in developing. That is, the Creative Commons which uses our intellectual property system to help free the commons of the mind.