Internet of Things and the Law

Internet of Things and the Law: Legal Strategies for Consumer-Centric Smart Technologies is the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the legal issues in the Internet of Things (IoT). For decades, the decreasing importance of tangible wealth and power ? and the increasing significance of their disembodied counterparts ? has been the subject of much legal research. For some time now, legal scholars have grappled with how laws drafted for tangible property and predigital ?offline? technologies can cope with dematerialisation, digitalisation, and the internet. As dematerialisation continues, this book aims to illuminate the opposite movement: rematerialisation, namely, the return of data, knowledge, and power within a physical ?smart? world. This development frames the book?s central question: can the law steer rematerialisation in a human-centric and socially just direction? To answer it, the book focuses on the IoT, the sociotechnological phenomenon that is primarily responsible for this shift. After a thorough analysis of how existing laws can be interpreted to empower IoT end users, Noto La Diega leaves us with the fundamental question of what happens when the law fails us and concludes with a call for collective resistance against ?smart? capitalism.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

?Internet of Things and the Law is an impressive work on several levels. It exposes inadequate consumer safeguards in the current ?contractual quagmire? and complex, overlapping regulatory regimes governing the IOT. Noto La Diega masterfully analyzes the relevant privacy, intellectual property, telecommunications, competition, and internet laws as he explicates their implications and proposes reforms. But like an artist sweeping away an intricate mandala after he has completed it, Noto La Diega boldly recognizes the limits of law and proposes a utopian horizon for IOT governance based on a deep engagement with studies in political economy and social theory. This book not only advances our understanding of IOT policy but also serves as a model for future work in the law and political economy of technology policy.?

Professor Frank Pasquale , Brooklyn Law School, author of the bestseller The Black Box Society

? Internet of Things and the Law: Legal Strategies for Consumer-Centric Smart Technologies is a thorough exposition of the regulation of the Internet of Things which starts by expertly defining ?the Things? and the regulatory puzzles around them. Keeping the consumer front and centre, the book engages with a broad range of issues starting with ?Netflix Law, GeoBlocking and the personal/nonpersonal data binary. A strong case is made for a non-binary approach to regulation and for legal approaches, including contract law, consumer law, privacy law and intellectual property law, that mitigate the imbalances and vulnerabilities consumers are exposed to. Ultimately, Nota La Diega argues that the Commons for a Collectivised and Open IoT will take society beyond the limitations of these legal approaches. This is a timely and brilliant addition to scholarship that should inform forward-thinking regulatory approaches.?

Professor Caroline B Ncube , Professor and SARChI Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development, University of Cape Town

?A wonderfully informative and deeply reflective study of the Internet of Things from a socio-legal perspective, presented to us by one of the leading experts in the field. Dr Guido Noto La Diega convincingly argues for an open IoT and points to some hopeful signs. The book should be read especially by those interested in how European law might effectively regulate an Internet dominated by ?Things? and how people acting collectively can harness their power to reshape the future.?

?The only comprehensive and thorough legal analysis of IoT available as yet, which beautifully combines technological savvy with an admirable love for polemics?

Professor Marco Ricolfi , Co-Director of the Nexa Centre for Internet & Society; Professor of Commercial Law, Universit? degli Studi di Torino; Equity Partner at Weigmann Studio Legale