Eckert, Digi­ta­le Daten als Wirt­schafts­gut: digi­ta­le Daten als Sache, SJZ 2016, 245 et seq.

Mar­tin Eckert has published an essay in the cur­rent SJZ on the topic of “Digi­tal data as an eco­no­mic good: digi­tal data as a thing”. The essay is based on a pre­sen­ta­ti­on given on Febru­ary 2, 2016 (PDF). Eckert argues that “digi­tal data” (machi­ne-rea­da­ble infor­ma­ti­on encoded and stored in a bina­ry code) meet the requi­re­ments for being an object and can the­r­e­fo­re be assi­gned to pro­per­ty law de lege lata:

The func­tion­a­li­ty of the con­cept of tan­gi­ble pro­per­ty advo­ca­ted by Wie­gand and the rea­li­ties and needs of the digi­tal eco­no­my per­mit an exten­si­on of the con­ven­tio­nal con­cept of tan­gi­ble pro­per­ty to digi­tal data. The­se ful­fill the requi­re­ments of con­trolla­bi­li­ty and – to the ext­ent requi­red at all under Swiss law – phy­si­cal­i­ty. Digi­tal data can be sub­su­med under a slight­ly expan­ded noti­on of tan­gi­ble pro­per­ty and thus be the sub­ject mat­ter of dri­ving pro­per­ty and possession.

The con­clu­si­ons Eckert draws from this can be seen in the paper men­tio­ned above.