[arin-ppml] On USG 'granting of rights' (was: ARIN-PPML 2015-2)

[Seth Johnson]

I don't think you'll find very much in the way of common law rights to
information as such.  It kinda has to be a statute to start with --
and statutes giving property in information aren't really something
that happens much, except in the areas you mention -- which were
accorded to Congress to grant.

On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 6:38 PM, William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 6:24 PM, Seth Johnson <seth.p.johnson at gmail.com> wrote:
>> If it's copyright, the judge won't do that.  There's no such thing as
>> an "exclusive right to use" in copyright.
>
> Hi Seth,
>
> IP addresses are definitely not copyrights. Or trademarks, patents or
> trade secrets. So far as I know, they're not any kind of
> *intellectual* property whose existence derives from statute and, in
> the U.S., from the Constitution itself.
>
> I suspect they're Common Law *Intangible* Property which is something
> else entirely. At least they are in common law jurisdictions which
> includes all of the U.S. and Canada and if I'm not mistaken everywhere
> else in the ARIN region as well.
>
> Much of Europe operates on Roman Civil Law rather than English Common
> Law. The legal foundations over there are so different I couldn't
> begin to speculate how IP addresses fit.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
>
>
> --
> William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
> Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>