Abstract
Information has become a very valuable resource in today’s society. It has impacted the economic, social and cultural spheres of every nation because of its great utility. However, if this information is regulated strictly, and access is restricted to only certain groups of consumers, there will be a divide in the information market. On the contrary, making all kinds of information freely available in the public domain will lead to undesirable free riding. There is thus a need to create a balance between access to information and prevention of abuse of information. The concept of property has over time evolved to include intangible property such as information but certain conflicting issues still need to be resolved. Policy decisions non-disclosure of information over free speech and free flow of information needs to be debated.
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Shapiro C, Varian H (1999) Information Rules: Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston. In: WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (2002) The Impact of Protection of Non-Original Databases on the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Eights Sessions, Geneva, p 5.
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WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (2002) The Impact of Protection of Non-Original Databases on the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Eights Sessions, Geneva, p 2.
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(1986) 1 All E.R. 617.
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(1964) 3 All E.R. 731.
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Feather J (2004) The Information Society. Facet Publishing, p 112.
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Id., p 114.
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Id., p 115.
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Warren, Brandeis (1890) The Right to Privacy. HarvLR 4:193.
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Hohfeld (1913) Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning. YaleLJ23:16.
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Vandervelde (1980) The New Property of the Nineteenth Century: The Development of the Modern Concept of Property. BuffL R 29:325.
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Weinrib A S (1988) Information and Property. Toronto L. J. 38:121.
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Id., p 121.
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Supra note 7, at 8.
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(1769) 98 E.R. 201.
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248 US 215 (1918). The defendant copied news items from the early edition of plaintiff’s paper and distributed to its members. Court granted injunction preventing from copying and selling of news gathered by plaintiff until its commercial value passed.
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Libling (1978) The Concept of Property: Property in Intangibles. LQR 94:103.
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Chafee (1940) Unfair Competition, Harv LR 53:1289.
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(1972) 25 D.L.R. (3d) 49. The defendant, automobile manufacturer had used an action photograph of the plaintiff , a professional football player to advertise its cars. No consent was taken to use the picture. Plaintiff alleges that by associating him with the product, defendant misappropriated something of commercial value and thus injured his property right.
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Locke J (1690) Two Treaties of Government, Book II, Chap. V.
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World Information Technology and Services Alliance, The Global Information Economy.www.witsa.org/press/degitalplanetpressrelease_rev.doc. Accessed 16 Nov 2006. Among other key findings of this year’s Digital Planet report:
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Communications products and services represent the largest single category of ICT spending in 2006 with $1.57 trillion, but software is the fastest growing category, up year to year by 9.9 %;
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Consumers spend one out of every four ICT dollars worldwide. Per capita ICT spending increased almost $29 between 2005 and 2006, from $537.91 to $566.89. Per capita ICT spending has increased every year since 2001;
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ICT spending per employee is up almost 40 % between 2001 and 2006. Global ICT spending per employee reached $1,277 in 2006 and is expected to top $1,500 by the end of the decade;
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In spending by country, the top ten ICT spending countries remain fixed in rank between 2001 and 2005. In descending order, these are: the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, China, Italy, Canada, Brazil and Korea. In 2006, China catches France in the total ICT spending race, with outlays of $142.3 billion. In 2007, China is expected to jump ahead of France and ahead of the United Kingdom in 2008. By 2009, China will be the third largest ICT spending country. Also of interest, India will replace Korea as a member of the top ten in 2007 with $65.5 billion;
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China is also a powerhouse in rates of spending, with a 20.9 % annual increase in 2006 for outpacing any other member of the top ten. In fact, China ICT annual growth rates exceed 20 % every year between 2001 and 2006. This trend is expected to continue through the decade, growing to almost 26 % by 2009;
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The Americas will grow the slowest of the three broad regions charted in Digital Planet, at 4.4 % between 2005 and 2009. The Americas’ share of ICT spending will shrink from 44 % last year to 39 % in 2009. Asia-Pacific will grow at 11.1 % from 2005 through 2009.
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Rolls-Royce Ltd. v. Jeffrey (1962) 1 All E.R. 801.
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Ichard v. Frangoulis (1971) 2 All E.R. 461.
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(1916) 1 A.C. 688.
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(1922) 2 Chap. 475.
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(1967) 2 A.C. 46.
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68 C.L.R. 525. In: Clarke, supra note 33, at 90.
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68 C.L.R. 525. In: Clarke, supra note 33, at 91.
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Oxford v. Moss (1978) 68 Crim. App. Rep. 183. The case involved student gaining unauthorized access to examination paper and was which was not considered as theft.
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(1906) 22 T.L.R. 375.
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Report No. 110, (1981), p 9. In: Clarke, supra note 33, at 99.
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Cornish, Llewelyn (2003) Intellectual Property. Sweet & Maxwell, p. 240. In: Clarke, supra note 33, at 104.
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(1979) V.R. 167.
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Clarke, supra note 33, at 106.
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Jones G (1970) Restitution of Benefits Obtained in Breach of Author’s Confidence. LQR86:463.
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English Law Commission Working Paper on Breach of Confidence (1974), No. 58. In: Stuckey J E (1981) The Equitable Action For Breach of Confidence: Is Information Ever Property? Syd L R 9:402.
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(1948) 65 R.P.C. 203.
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Stuckey, supra note 44, at 404.
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Forrai G (1971) Confidential Information—A General Survey. Syd LR 6:382.
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Stuckey, supra note 44, at 405.
- 44.
(1907) 1 Chap. 107. In: Stuckey, supra note 44, at 406.
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Seager v. Copydex (1967) 1 W.L.R. 923.
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(1917) 244 U.S. 100.
- 47.
(1916) 1 A.C. 688.
- 48.
(1960) 40 Tax Cas 443.
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(1966) 2 W.L.R. 1323.
- 50.
Stuckey, supra note 44, at 414.
- 51.
(1979) Fed. Crim. L.R. 119.
- 52.
Comment on Oxford v. Moss (1979) Crim. L. R. 119.
- 53.
F.W. Dodge Co. v. Construction Information Co. 66 N.E. 204 (1903).
- 54.
(1983) 149 D.L.R. (3d) 583. The accused was hired to obtain name and telephone number of six hundred employees of a hotel for the purpose of organizing union. The information was kept in a file was protected through security arrangement as was considered confidential. The accused approached an employee to get that information and offered to pay for it. He was charged with commission of theft. Section 283(1) of Criminal Code defines theft as ‘everyone commits theft who fraudulently and without colour of right takes or fraudulently and without colour of right converts to his use or the use of another person, anything whether animate or inanimate with the intent…..to deal with it in such a manner that it can not be restored in the condition in which it was at the time it was taken or converted’. At trial the accused was acquitted as Judge Krever observed ‘if this interpretation should be thought inadequate to meet the needs of modern Canadian society, particularly because of its implication for the computer age, the remedy must be a change in the law by Parliament. It is not for a court to stretch the language used in a statute dealing with the criminal law to solve problems outside the contemplation of the statute’. On appeal it was reversed as Judge Houlden observed ‘the last half of the twentieth century has seen as exponential growth in the development and improvement of methods of storing and distributing information. I believe that Section 283(1) of the Code is wide enough to protect the interest of those who compile and store such information and to restrain the activities of those who wrongfully seek to misappropriate it. While clearly not all information is property, I see no reason why confidential information that has been gathered through the expenditure of time, effort and money by a commercial enterprise for the purpose of its business should not be regarded as property and hence entitled to the protection of the criminal law’.
- 55.
(1986) 45 Alta.L.R. (2d) 23. The accused was hired by employer to do security check on job applications. He approached police department officials, seeking access to a pool of computer stored information in order to determine if any applicant had criminal records. When told that the information was available to law enforcement agencies, he befriended a police officer to do this for a fee. The officer reported this and the accused was arrested while exchanging money and information. He was charged with theft. The trial judge convicted him but on appeal it was unanimously held that confidential information was incapable of being stolen.
- 56.
(1849) 2 DeG & Sm. 643. A set of etchings made by Queen Victoria and her husband were sent to the printer to be engraved. Copies of engraving came to the hands of defendant who prepared a catalogue describing works for a public exhibition. The Court prohibited both the exhibition and distribution of catalogue.
- 57.
Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. v. Gregory & Co. (1896) 1 QB 147, Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. v. Central News Ltd. (1897) 2 Chap. 48, Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. v. Howard and Manchester Press Agency Ltd. (1906) 22 T.L.R. 375. In these cases, plaintiff firm was engaged in business of collecting information about stock prices, horse races, sporting news, respectively, brought an action against the defendant who was surreptitiously obtaining the information, from one of the subscriber of the plaintiff, contrary to the terms of agreement between plaintiff and subscribers, and using in course of its own business. In all the three cases, plaintiff obtained injunction against defendant restraining it from copying the information on the basis of property right in the information.
- 58.
Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd. v. Howard and Manchester Press Agency Ltd. (1906) 22 T.L.R. 375.
- 59.
(1967) 2 All. E. R. 415.
- 60.
(1978) Qd. R. 72.
- 61.
(1947) 2 D.L.R. 62.
- 62.
365 F. 2d 389 (1966).
- 63.
365 F. 2d 389 (1966).
- 64.
(1983) 149 D.L.R. (3d) 583.
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Mazumder, A. (2016). Information, Property and Protection. In: Database Law. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2200-5_1
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