Owned
Property, Privacy, and the New Digital Serfdom

Owned provides a legal analysis of the legal, social, and technological developments that have driven an erosion of property rights in the digital context.

Joshua A. T. Fairfield (Author)

9781107159358, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 July 2017

256 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.49 kg

'The Internet of Things presents new threats to liberty. You don't own your front door; the company running its software does. Fairfield tells us how law needs to change to protect our ancient rights of ownership over the things we buy.' Edward Castronova, Indiana University

In this compelling examination of the intersection of smart technology and the law, Joshua A. T. Fairfield explains the crisis of digital ownership - how and why we no longer control our smartphones or software-enable devices, which are effectively owned by software and content companies. In two years we will not own our 'smart' televisions which will also be used by advertisers to listen in to our living rooms. In the coming decade, if we do not take back our ownership rights, the same will be said of our self-driving cars and software-enabled homes. We risk becoming digital peasants, owned by software and advertising companies, not to mention overreaching governments. Owned should be read by anyone wanting to know more about the loss of our property rights, the implications for our privacy rights and how we can regain control of both.

1. Introduction
2. The death of property
3. Surrounded
4. So what?
5. Private property
6. Property as information
7. The future of property
8. Jailbreaking ownership
9. Owners or owned?

Subject Areas: Property law [LNS], Intellectual property law [LNR]