Information as Property

• Author: Herbert Zech
• Pages: 192-197

2015

Herbert Zech

192

3

Information as Property

by Herbert Zech*

© 2015 Herbert Zech

Everybody may disseminate this ar ticle by electronic m eans and make it available for downloa d under the terms and

conditions of the Digital P eer Publishing Licence (DPPL). A copy of the license text may be obtain ed at http://nbn-resolving.

de/urn:nbn:de:0009-dppl-v3-en8.

Recommended citation: Herb ert Zech, Information as Proper ty, 6 (2015) JIPITEC 192, para 1.

Keywords: information as a property good; property rights; economic good; ownership of infomation; data pro-

ducers

as property can be found in the area of intellectual

property, personality protection and other property

rights. This essay attempts to categorize three dif-

ferent types of information that can be understood

as a good in the economic sense and an object in the

legal sense: semantic information, syntactic informa-

tion and structural information. It shows how legal

ownership of such information is established by dif-

ferent subjective rights. In addition the widespread

debate regarding the justification of intellectual prop-

erty rights is demonstrated from the wider perspec-

tive of informational property in general. Finally, in

light of current debates, this essay explores whether

“data producers” shall have a new kind of property

right in data.

Abstract: Information is widely regarded as

one of the key concepts of modern society. The pro-

duction, distribution and use of information are some

of the key aspects of modern economies. Driven by

technological progress information has become a

good in its own right. This established an informa-

tion economy and challenged the law to provide an

apt framework suitable to promote the production of

information, enable its distribution and efficient allo-

cation, and deal with the risks inherent in information

technology. Property rights are a major component

of such a framework. However, information as an ob-

ject of property rights is not limited to intellectual

property but may also occur as personality aspects

or even tangible property. Accordingly, information

A. Information as a Commodity:

Semantic, Syntactic and

Structural Information*

1

From a legal perspective the “nature” of information

is far less important than the question of how

information is treated as an object in everyday life

and - closely associated with this - how information

is treated as a commercial good or commodity. This

is driven by and relevant to the development of

information technology that not only enhanced our

capabilities in handling information but also altered

our view of information in everyday life. Therefore,

before proposing the concept of semantic, syntactic

and structural information, the inuence of

technological developments shall be briey outlined.

I. How Technological Progress

Influences our Perception

of Information

2

The technological development of information

processing has its roots in very early human history.1

Beginning with the development of language and

scripture, followed by ever advancing printing

presses on to punched cards in weaving machines,

photography, telegraphs, telephones, sound

recording, radio, TV, photocopying, and nally

information technology; multiplication, storage,

transfer and automated processing of information

has become increasingly easier, more powerful and

widespread.

1. Easier Multiplication of

Information and the Loosening

of its Ties to Physical Carriers

3

Scripture provided the rst means of storing

information other than the human mind. As a

consequence, storing information has become

increasingly simplied, especially with the advent

of printing presses that allowed the multiplication

1 One of the best accounts of technological and cultural deve-

lopments inuencing the handling of information is given

by Levinson, The Soft Edge, A Natural History and Future of

the Information Revolution, 1998.