[Nettime-bold] On the Digitalisation of Things

[Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>]

> resting on the ancient Justinian private law notion of property rights

I think we are in the middle of a change of paradimg. The situation isnt
completely new, but it is the networking, that gives it some more energy,
and such developpments need time.

There was a time when computers costed millions, the time before the PC.
Programs were seen as programs, ideas. This was maybe ok when programming
was a dangerous affair. But what the buyer wants is not the idea, the
right to use it, but the thing itself. The typewriter, the drawing table,
a function, it is ok as long as it works, no matter if he owns a right.
Everybody knows it.. There is no reason to treat those digitalised things
anyhow different from real things. If you buy a stolen thing, it is ok, as
long as the original owner doesnt come and takes it back.

Thats what the romans called "habere licere".

If somebody is confused: if the seller knows, that the thing is stolen,
than the buyer can give it back etc. But this is another case and changes
nothing in "habere licere", to be in a position to have something.

Heiko




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