Jurisprudential and Legal Investigation of Digital Data Value and Ownership in Cyberspace

In this study, we have classified digital data into three groups to precisely investigate digital data value and ownership: (1) Digital data with foreign likeness. Cyberspace is an environment for intellectual property such as computer software that are available as digital data. (2) Big data that is naturally realizable outside the network but is available in cyberspace since it is large in volume and time-consuming for external handling. (3) Data such as domain and web hosting that are instruments for cyberspace and there is no foreign likeness for them and they have been created according to the requirements of the cyberspace. The value of the digital data is determined by the data’s economic value on one hand, and on the other hand, by inference to the types of properties in Fiqh and Islamic law. Ownership, too, in the context of full claim on digital data is acceptable due to the advantage of possessing it. In this study, we have studied each category under a certain legal system with respect to the characteristics of each category and qualities of properties according to Fiqh and Islamic law: The first and second groups – as intellectual rights – are placed under the principle of intellectual property and its rules of ownership. Cyberspace instruments shall be considered as the infrastructures such as hardware and the resulting benefits as well as ownership of such data will be investigated under civil property system.