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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   16048 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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He can seize the computer, the issue seems to be the law doesn't allow you to seize the data as its ownership is not transferred. If he wiped the computer and resold it then that seems to be within the law as long as you jump through a few hoops (in Delaware anyway).

If you left your house keys in your car, it doesn't seem necessary for the mechanic to be able to sell those so that someone can gain access to your home. Likewise if you left your bank card in there, if he used it to buy other things that is probably fraud.

The ownership of the copies of the data written on that device is transferred. That doesn't include copyright, but that's irrelevant in this case. If a photographer abandons a briefcase of valuable art prints in your business, you can't sell copies of their photos, but you can certainly sell the photos themselves.

The ownership of the copies of the data written on that device is transferred.

That appears to be unclear because the Delaware law refers to "tangible property" is data a tangible property? I would say not, but I am not a lawyer.

Material instantiations of data are tangible. Books are tangible, photographs are tangible, DVDs are tangible, hard disk platters and NVRAM, and their physical configurations are tangible as well.

The issue appears to be that this is unclear. Tangible property has come up in relation to insurance claims and tax laws that have gone to court as to whether coverage counts data or how it is to be taxed as tangible property, and the answers have not led to a specific ruling. So you could be correct, or you may not be.

"As a careful reading of these cases reveals, there still is no clear answer -- in the case law -- to the "tangible property" conundrum. Maybe the "perfect" fact pattern has not yet occurred that would place squarely before a court the question of whether computer data is "tangible property" or subject to "physical loss or damage." Maybe the courts are not publishing decisions on the issue, or maybe insurers are settling out of court and thereby preventing the development of a clearer body of law."

For your argument, the Louisiana Supreme Court agrees with you:

"When stored on magnetic tape, disc, or computer chip, this software, or set of instructions, is physically manifested in machine readable form by arranging electrons, by use of an electric current, to create either a magnetized or unmagnetized space.... The software at issue is not merely knowledge, but rather is knowledge recorded in a physical form which has physical existence, takes up space on the tape, disc, or hard drive, makes physical things happen, and can be perceived by the senses.... The purchaser of computer software desires nor receives mere knowledge, but rather receives a certain arrangement of matter that will make his or her computer perform a desired function.... One cannot escape the fact that software, recorded in physical form, becomes inextricably intertwined with, or part and parcel of the corporeal object upon which it is recorded, be that a disk, tape, hard drive, or other device."

As does Utah in a similar case, while the Connecticut Supreme Court and Arizona Supreme Court take the opposite approach. Now none of these cases are about abandonment laws but whether courts interpret clauses that say tangible property to include computer data or not does very much appear to be up in the air.

To the extent that at the very least there can be good faith disagreement on whether ownership of the data transferred or not and therefore whether the new owner of the laptop had the legal authorization to give copies of the data to other people.

Sure house keys, but if you leave bullion in the trunk or a patent application or a business plan, or something that's valuable in itself that the mechanic uses I'd have a hard time voting to convict the mechanic for his use of them with my playground fairness sensibilities.

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