Property Rights In Digital Files

Question 1

Is mere information considered property

Answer 1

No

Question 2

Why is data not mere information

Answer 2

Because they are distinct virtual objects, treated as separate documents by software, they also have abilities beyond mere knowledge

Question 3

Why might property rights be needed for files

Answer 3

Because files may be hosted in other people’s servers and without property rights there is no legal way to recover them

Question 4

What rights exist to a letter

Answer 4

The property rights of the paper and the inc, the copy right of the text itself and the information itself aka ideas facts and message is free for anyone to use except maybe when there is an obligation of confidentiality and good equity reasons to restrict the usage

Question 5

What reasons are there to not regard information as property

Answer 5

It impairs free speech (information is morally non excludable), it is unlike other property and such rights are unnecessary

Question 6

What are the four criteria that information does not live up to to be considered a property

Answer 6

It should be definable, identifiable by third parties, tradable and have some degree of permanence or stability

Question 7

What is the condition of separability in property rights

Answer 7

The thing must be transferrable and it should be able to be fully transferred and the previous owner fully deprived of its benefits. It should exist independent of any person

Question 8

What foes it mean the property has to be rivalrous

Answer 8

That use by one person must inhibit the use by others

Question 9

Why is property rights unnecessary för information

Answer 9

Because it is already sufficiently protected by contract, confidence and privacy laws

Question 10

How do files exist in terms of physical infrastructure

Answer 10

As the existence and absences of electrical charges on a transistor stored on a drive on a server

Question 11

How do files exist in computer logic

Answer 11

As separate encapsulations of code under a title with an extension indicating purpouse

Question 12

Where are the rights to a file unclear

Answer 12

As a file is not mearly the electrons that makes it up that can be possessed or the code that can be protected by copyright but also exists as a tool or instrument with a specific purpose or n cyberspace. Different code can have the same result after all, can you copyrighting the ux?

Question 13

Is a digital file rivalrus

Answer 13

No, anyone with a computer can use a file even if you have made it as it can be limitlessly copied and shared

Question 14

How may a file fail to meet the standards of transferability

Answer 14

When transferred it is created on another device and may or may not be deleted on the first

Question 15

Is a file destroyed when deleted

Answer 15

No it is merely lost and may be recovered if not overwritten

Question 16

Is property rights really necessary gor files

Answer 16

Maybe not, as long as personal rights to data such as gdpr will satisfy

Question 17

Are patents chooses in action

Answer 17

No they have their own separate laws

Question 18

Can there be a type of property that is not a chose in action or posession

Answer 18

No as chose in action is residual and that there is president for not doing so

Question 19

Why is a file not a chose in action

Answer 19

Because it does not comprise any legal right yo enforce any law against anyone such as a debt contract would. It does not claim to do so but can you not make it so under law, it is not chose in action because it is not a chose in action else.

Question 20

Can a file be a choose in possession

Answer 20

No they can not as possession only applies to tangible things that can be subjected to physical control. Files can only be considered practically controlled

Question 21

Why are files not tangible if they are made up of physical stuff

Answer 21

Because they are not the electrons that make them upp but rather the essence of their composition, different electrons appear in different devices.

Question 22

What is the argument for files to be treated as posessed

Answer 22

Because they mimic the experience of possession, when handling a file there both exists a cognitive intent to exclude others and a manual element of control

Question 23

What is required for files to be considered posessed

Answer 23

As the files do not fit the tangibility requirements it is required to change the law in parliament

Question 24

Why might some digital assets be considered property by court

Answer 24

Because they pass the ainsworth test by being defined, identified, transferred and had a degree of permanence do even if they don’t fit the categorization they still occupy a place among property. This is the case for digital documents like EUAs and cryptocurrencies

Question 25

What is the tort of conversion

Answer 25

That when a third party interferes with an owners property the owner has the right to redress aka sue for damages or recovery of a thing in possession or restitution of a thing in action

Question 26

How have disputes regarding giles been resolved in the past

Answer 26

Through looking at contracts between the fuding parties

Question 27

When might contractual personal rights be insufficient for files

Answer 27

Upon insolvency contractual rights have a weaker claim than property rights right to recover their property. So banks may take your data as ransom or sell it to recover their debt. Secondly in some cases there are no contracts such as with cloud providers

Question 28

I Is there president for applying the tort of conversion to files

Answer 28

Yes in two cases in new Zealand courts have determined that employees have had the right to recover files stored on work computers the reason being that there was “good policy reasons to extend the tort of conversion to digital assets” due yo them possessing a real value in practice .

Question 29

How might digital property rights interfere with physical property rights

Answer 29

Because if A has a file on Bs drive it interferes with B right to do what they want with their property