Heroine Akiko Fights for Fair Use

A new commix book, Bound By Law, is an innovative form of commentary on intellectual property and creative production. The book is a collaboration between cartoonist Keith Aoki, Duke law professor James Boyle and Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain director Jennifer Jenkins. The book is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. The project was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Here are some of the blurbs:

“Will a spiky-haired, camera-toting super-heroine... restore decency and common sense to the world of creative endeavor?” -Paul Bonner, The Herald-Sun

“Bound By Law lays out a sparkling, witty, moving and informative story about how the eroded public domain has made documentary filmmaking into a minefield.” -Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net

“Bound by Law translates law into plain English and abstract ideas into ‘visual metaphors.’ So the comic's heroine, Akiko, brandishes a laser gun as she fends off a cyclopean 'Rights Monster' - all the while learning copyright law basics, including the line between fair use and copyright infringement.” -Brandt Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal online

Illustrated legal commentary with super-heros? I am sold!