Verkehrsfähigkeit digitaler Güter

Tangible goods lose ground to intangible content. This raises a lot of legal questions: How to design contracts concerning digital content? Is anybody legally liable to provide updates? What about the principle of neutrality of platforms or protection of technological measures and rights-management information? The most controversial issue, however, is whether digital goods are marketable or whether it is possible to limit the free circulation of these goods by technical or contractual means. The question of free circulation of digital goods is a cornerstone within the development of a Law of Digital Goods itself. Accordingly, a conference in Basel on 9 October 2015 was dedicated to discuss this topic from an economic, historical, doctrinal and last but not least political perspective. All presentations are published in this volume. The contributions underline the increasing significance of contract law. However, convincing arguments regarding tangible goods are not necessarily convincing in the digital context. Developing a Law of Digital Goods is a major future challenge for lawyers.