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> It is the forceful physical violation of one’s person or property. But not all property is physical. And increasingly, our property is just data located in s
by JorgeGT 7y ago
> It is the forceful physical violation of one’s person or property.
But not all property is physical. And increasingly, our property is just data located in somebody's servers: your Dropbox contents, your Steam games, the money in your online bank account.
- SllX 7y agoI would argue it is physical insofar as it has to exist on something tangible, whether that’s an aggregated bank ledger or a server somewhere or as backups on disks that you own, but your point is taken so I’ll address the concerns you raised. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, but unfortunately from my perspective, in the case of Steam games and software, that is largely covered: you paid for licenses to play games rather than licenses, but some of it is DRM-free so you can take backups. That money in the bank account is yours, unless seized through a legal process, which can happen and you can challenge it if it does. Everything else, Dropbox, Google Photos, iCloud, emails, whatever, you should have your own backups. You should have them not just for legal reasons or because your service providers might terminate their services to you, but because they might actually lose your data. You have some rights to that data, but none of the businesses involved in hosting it are compelled to do business with you specifically, and aren’t required to keep it anymore than the law compels them to.
- JorgeGT 7y ago> That money in the bank account is yours, unless seized through a legal process. And this is because through the centuries we have enacted enough laws to deter private banking companies from messing with our money. If left to their own devices, we would have DRM-ed money, random service terminations, unexplained money loses, etc. We just need to extend these rights and safeties to other spheres of our digital property through the use of law and its enforcement.
- SllX 7y agoYes, but a bank can still terminate its business with you. It just has to return your money to you. Now if you’re suggesting we have a law that companies which hold our data have to return our data when they terminate their business relationship with us, I wouldn’t necessarily disagree.
- JorgeGT 7y agoThe legal obligations of a bank towards its clients generally extend way beyond your example, depending on the country, but yes, returning the client belongings upon termination of the relationship should be a basic right mandated by law. I think it is profoundly absurd that we are renouncing hard-fought consumer rights just because business is now being conducted electronically. If the letter of the law no longer matches the spirit, we should update the letter, not lose the spirit.
- SllX 7y agoI think we agree more than we disagree. Thank you for your time.
- BlueTemplar 7y agoMost of these things aren't really property. And even for banks, you partially forfeit your property rights when deciding to keep your money there...