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New Scholarship: Cyberspace as Property
Posted by Steven Wu on Friday, February 06 @ 11:02:26 EST Legal Technology
Professor Jacqueline Lipton has posted a paper entitled "Mixed Metaphors in Cyberspace: Property in Information and Information Systems" (link thanks to Legal Theory Blog), cautioning scholars not to make too much of property metaphors in discussing cyberspace.
Many scholars have commented on the use of real and personal property metaphors to describe aspects of cyberspace, often expressing concern about inappropriate uses of such metaphors. If the focus of cyberspace law debates becomes too entrenched in notions of whether we should be utilizing real and/or personal property metaphors, we risk losing focus on some of the more important issues. These issues include questions about exactly what subject matter should be regulated by cyber-laws, and how approaches to protection might be appropriately harmonized between different jurisdictions in an increasingly globalized society. This paper focuses on some of these issues, utilizing a case study involving a framework for a new approach to regulations prohibiting unauthorized 'bad faith' incursions into information and information systems. In so doing, it advocates some reliance on personal property concepts in relation to information, and aspects of information systems. However, it argues that real property metaphors should be avoided in cyberspace. It also compares legal approaches to unauthorized interferences with proprietary information/informtion systems between the United States and the European Union.
 
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Re: New Scholarship: Cyberspace as Property (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, February 06 @ 14:01:12 EST
Cyberspace should be dealt with in terms of what it is, all about the flow of communication [www.jerf.org], not ineffectual property laws that were outdated 20 years ago.

As long as we're jammed up on "property" ideas, we'll get nowhere.


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