Cultural environmentalism is the movement that seeks to protect thepublic domain. The term was coined byJames Boyle, professor atDuke University and contributor to theFinancial Times.[1]
The term stems from Boyle's argument that those who seek to protect the public domain are working towards a similar ends asenvironmentalists. Boyle's contention is that whereas the environmentalist movement illuminated the effects that social decisions can have upon ecology, cultural environmentalists seek to illuminate the effects thatintellectual property laws can have upon culture.