Adverse Possession and Digital Books

Land is a finite physical resource. God only created a limited amount of it. Historically, land has been linked to both social status and wealth creation. So as to ensure that that land remains used and contributes to common weal in many jurisdictions if one does not safeguard ones possession of the land, then the land's ownership rights may be transferred to another party. One means of doing so is via adverse possession. In Ireland, a good overview of how this is achieved is in the book: T. Kelly, Neighbours and the law, (Clarius Press 2012).

In essence, if Party's A land is occupied without their knowledge for 12 years by Party B, then if the formalities are followed the land ownership's rights are transferred. In the larger realm of European law, this has been judged as allowable in the ECHR judgement of Pye vs UK [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_A_Pye_(Oxford)_Ltd_v_Graham].

Thus, if you are still with me, what is the relationship with Digital Books? This has been suggested by an interesting work, Copyright and Mass Digitization by Maurizio Borghi and Stavroula Karapapa, where the authors link how Digital works are related to unused land which does not add to the common economy. In this case, the crop is binary instead of physical:a culture's heritage. The argument goes that without an online presence, then it is possible for an authored work to be lost and thus impoverishing society at large.

Up till this year(2014) this might have seen to be an academic exercise. However this with recent European case of C-117/13 Technische Universität Darmstadt v Eugen Ulmer KG [http://curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?num=C-117/13] has proved to be of real world significance. In essence this judgement allows libraries to provide online content of works (with certain restrictions) even if the rights holder's wish to withhold position.

If one were minded of how Jurisprudential matters might have influenced this, then Judge Posner's Law and Economics would seem to be the relevant construct to study; especially in light of the Google Books saga. Thus bearing in mind the malleability of rights which states give/take on land ownership then it is unsurprising such a similar attitude has found a digital presence.