The question ‘what can we control?’ underpins both the information society and the knowledge economy, and represents the maturity of information technology. Most importantly, it signals a transition from a world that saw economic value in terms of atoms to a world which values information in bits. This chapter examines this transition and the role of bits in the information society. It first provides an overview of bits and their place in the digitization process. The chapter then looks at the advent of digital music and other digital goods such as digital video and electronic books. It also considers the shift from rivalrous goods to nonrivalrous goods before concluding with a discussion of the legal challenge of the information society.
Chapter
1. The world of bits
Chapter
22. Data protection: the legal framework
This chapter examines data protection, digitization of data, its implications for personal privacy, and the regulation of data industries. It begins by discussing the current law found, post Brexit in the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. It examines the key concepts of data controllers, data processors, and data subjects, and discusses the conditions for the processing of personal data. This includes an examination of key cases such as Nowak v Data Protection Commissioner, the Facebook fan page case, and Bodil Lindqvist. It looks at the geographical scope of UK GDPR and the extra-territorial effect of the Regulation and examines the domestic purposes exemption after Ryneš. It examines questions of fairness and lawfulness of processing as discussed in Johnson v Medical Defence Union.
Chapter
8. Intellectual property rights and the information society
This chapter examines intellectual property rights (IPRs) in relation to the information society. The discussion begins with an overview of IPRs involving copyright, patents, trade marks, and the database right, and then considers IPRs and the process of digitization within the framework of cyberlaw. It mentions the criticism received for overprotecting content or systems in the information society and discusses the idea of an over-reliance on models developed for a previous age and for different challenges in dealing with the information economy and society. It concludes by highlighting the tension between the information society and the intellectual property industry in terms of what each wants and expects: liberty, free use of content, and unfettered free expression for the former; and protection, control over use, and abuse and reward for the latter.
