Nonprofit Organizations And The Intellectual Commons

‘There is no issue more fundamental to the growth of the open source society than a more mature and penetrating understanding of the nature of the nonprofit organization in a digital culture. Professor Lee’s book is essential reading to this fundamental topic, beautifully written and brilliantly conceived.’
– Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School, US

‘Jyh-An Lee provides the first comprehensive account of nonprofit organizations and their overlooked role in setting (and working around) intellectual property policy. The reader will find a wealth of information and a novel theory of NPOs as part of the IP ecosystem.’
– Mark A. Lemley, Stanford Law School, US

Over the past twenty years, a number of nonprofit organizations (NPOs), such as Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Free Software Foundation have laid essential building blocks for intellectual-commons as a social movement. Through a detailed description of these NPOs and a series of in-depth interviews with their officials, this book demonstrates that NPOs have provided the social structures that are necessary to support the production of intellectual commons.

By illustrating NPOs’ role in shaping the commons realm, this book provides a new lens through which to understand the intellectual-commons environment. Protecting intellectual commons has been one of the most important goals of recent innovation and information policies. This book focuses on the NPOs that occupy an increasingly critical and visible position in the intellectual-commons environment in recent years.

This detailed study will appeal to academics in intellectual property and internet law, nonprofit organizations, academics and professionals, and those involved in the Free Culture and Open Source Software Movement.