British Court Rules Information Stored Electronically Is Not “Propertyâ€
As we work, create and have fun in the digital world ever more than in the analog reality, we face the question of the legal status of all the digital data we transmit through the Internet or keep inside digital databases. According to the recent ruling by the United Kingdom Court, “information stored electronically does not constitute property which someone can exercise possession of.”
The UK Court of Appeal denied arguments that the electronically stored information can be someone’s property and refused to apply existing intellectual property laws in a manner that would “have the beneficial effect of extending the protection of property rights in a way that would take account of recent technological developments.”
While it is still possible to have control over information stored electronically, it is not possible to exercise your rights of possession of it.
As absurd as it sounds, the United Kingdom Court of Appeal seems to know what they are doing. Out-law.com publishes the details of the case dispute between the publisher and an IT company. Apparently, Datateam Business Media Limited publisher was looking to outsource the management part of its subscriber database. Your Response Ltd company took on the job, but the publisher was unhappy with the services and chose to terminate the contract. The dispute that followed concerned the payment of fees, during which the company Your Response Ltd claimed the rights of possessing the database, urging the Datateam Business Media Ltd to take legal action.
What is more interesting is the analysis given by one of the judges, Lord Justice Floyd:
“An electronic database consists of structured information. Although information may give rise to intellectual property rights, such as database rights and copyrights, the law has been reluctant to treat information itself as property. When information is created and recorded, there are sharp distinctions between the information itself, the physical medium on which the information is recorded and the rights to which the information gives rise. Whilst the physical medium and the rights are treated as property, the information itself has never been.”
That is a very interesting precedent that may have dire consequences on many aspects of online activity, the very least is the digital copyright. This particular court ruling confirms that the intellectual property is the luxury of the monopolists, not the freedom and ultimate standard of the creative process. Since any information that is stored digitally cannot be possessed, it cannot possibly be stolen, despite the copyright advocates’ efforts.
There you go, another anti-human facet of the democratic Europe.
