Information 'Ownership' in the Cloud

Abstract:     
This paper is an output from the Legal Aspects of Cloud Computing research project at Queen Mary's Centre for Commercial Law Studies, funded by Microsoft. It addresses two important elements of information ownership in a cloud computing relationship.

First, the paper analyses the likely expectations of those involved in a cloud computing relationship about information ownership, and attempts to identify how closely the current legal framework matches those expectations.

Second, the paper identifies the categories of information which are likely to be generated in a cloud computing relationship, and analyses how is that information is likely to be owned.

Forthcoming work on this topic will examine the terms of service of cloud computing providers to identify the range of approaches to the question of information ownership, and will analyse the effects of consumer protection laws on those terms.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 22

Accepted Paper Series