James Boyle

Brooke examines the current arguments over ownership and intellectual property with the help of a chair that collapses after just eight uses.

Brooke examines the current arguments over ownership and intellectual property with the help of a chair that collapses after just eight uses.

Copyright protections were never supposed to last forever. Copyright was originally designed to protect creators long enough so that they could profit from their work, after which time that work would enter the public domain. However, changes to copyright law have made it so that copyright protections in the US generally last for 70 years after the creator's death. Duke Law School Professor James Boyle runs the Center for the Study of the Public Domain. He tells Bob about all the works that would have entered the public domain this year, but didn't. 

Dan Auerbach - Heartbroken, In Disrepair

In 1976 Congress changed copyright law so that any musician who wrote a song after January 1^st, 1978 could apply to reclaim rights to those songs after 35 years.  So in 2013 there’s a long line of 1978 hitmakers who stand to regain their valuable songs and albums.  Duke professor James Boyle explains to Brooke why the windfall for Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Funkadelic and others is being fought tooth and nail by the record industry.

Song: Minute By Minute

Artist: The Doobie Brothers

Song: I Will Survive

Artist: Gloria Gaynor