Who owns the information in the information age? This conundrum lies at the heart of the legal analysis of the digital revolution. Its resolution will be to the 21st century what the development of sale of goods law was to the industrial revolution of the 19th.
Rights Arise ‘In Relation To’ Not ‘In’ Data
The traditional UK law approach to ownership of information can be summed up as ‘rights arise in relation to data not in data’. The initial proposition is bland enough: information is not of itself property – for example it can’t be stolen1. But the ways in which rights and duties arise under UK law over data are varied; and how some of those rights overlap and interweave, more elaborate still. Essentially, we are looking at mechanisms of the laws of contract, confidence, copyright and the newly created database right as the four paths to rights over data. (This is not to mention statutorily imposed regimes of duties and rights, for example under the data protection and computer
