2003-07-04
... ? Review of James Boyle's Shamans, Software, and Spleens (Thanks, Andie..)..James Boyle''s central thesis in Shamans, Software, and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society is that the romantic notion of the author as a solitary individual who creates something 'original' and 'transformative' drives much of intellectual property law. Boyle maintains that while this basis for intellectual property laws largely works, the current uncritical, even dogmatic, acceptance of the idea of an originary author can tend obscure the problems this system may create. As we move increasingly into an 'Information Age,' Boyle sees a pressing need to interrogate the language of entitlement built upon the romantic notion of authorship in order to understand how we mediate the 'ownership' of information.
