Rethinking Ownership, Internet Of Things

The very first thing taught to the student in a property law class is that what the buyer of real estate is really getting with title transfer is essentially a "bundle of rights" i.e. a set of legal privileges with respect to the property, including the right of possession, the right of control, the right of exclusion, the right of enjoyment, and the right of disposition, among others.

These rights (and sometimes obligations) can be isolated, sliced, diced and studied in ways that are not always understood and appreciated when the purchaser simply states "I own this place." Control may be subject to the rules of a governing HOA or local ordinance. The right of exclusion may be subject to easement. Even aside from the obvious title priority of the mortgage lender, the right of disposition may be conditioned by liens. Just notice what happens should you fail to keep up with your property taxes.

And so it may also apply to your personal property in that what you actually own becomes more defined, refined, and limited in the context of our increasingly digital world. Take the easy example of music. Back in the day, the adolescent Boomer might have "invested" in The White Album and, with it, title interest bestowing something of an "extended self." All an illusion, of course, as albums eventually morphed into streaming, reducing the album to all it really was in the first place i.e. the means for an intangible ephemeral listening experience. The fact that such an experience is now so readily available at a nominal rent would suggest the value of such title interest -- representing the associated bundle of rights -- is virtually nothing (now compare that to our MM 3/29/21 NFTs and the Metaverse discussion where $69 million was paid to acquire the bare title in a non-fungible token for something essentially already in the public domain).

 Sometimes, in fact, among this bundle of rights, are obligations, liabilities. One cited example in our focus article ( The Erosion of Personal Ownership  ) includes the way ownership of a six-figure John Deere tractor comes with a mandatory license forever binding the purchaser to the manufacturer for repair, an arrangement that somehow smacks of feudalism. Now extend that concept to the world of certain consumer appliances and we begin to look more like renters than owners.

Welcome to the Internet of Things. We long ago crossed that definitional threshold as more things or objects were connected to the Internet than were people. There's the so-called smart home, of course, where devices are part of an integrated automation, including lighting, heating and air conditioning, media and security systems, and cameras. Maybe it's time to at least ask what is gained in this Faustian bargain -- do we really need our refrigerator to automatically reorder eggs for us? 

The whole concept of ownership itself is worth discussing as our connected devices, and therefore we, become little more than nodes on an open-loop network.  Home automation devices sold with the promise of a "Lifetime Subscription" were "bricked" i.e. rendered useless after the manufacturer was acquired by a Google affiliate. 

The ultimate subject matter in a discussion of what ownership means would seem to be that of the self. How much autonomy are we willing to sacrifice in the name of purported convenience?

For crying out loud, grant me the power and wisdom to turn on my own damn light switch.