digital asset
{{Short description|Entity that exists in computerized format}}
{{for|the fintech company|Digital Asset Holdings}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
A digital asset is anything that exists only in digital form and comes with a distinct usage right or distinct permission for use. Data that do not possess those rights are not considered assets.
Digital assets include, but are not limited to: digital documents, audio content, motion pictures, and other relevant digital data currently in circulation or stored on digital appliances, such as personal computers, laptops, portable media players, tablets, data storage devices, and telecommunication devices. This encompasses any apparatus that currently exists or will exist as technology progresses to accommodate the conception of new modalities capable of carrying digital assets. This holds true regardless of the ownership of the physical device on which the digital asset is located.The Elder Law Report, Vol. XXV, Number 1
Types
Types of digital assets include, but are not limited to: software, photography, logos, illustrations, animations, audiovisual media, presentations, spreadsheets, digital paintings, word documents, electronic mails, websites, and various other digital formats with their respective metadata. The number of different types of digital assets is exponentially increasing due to the rising number of devices that leverage these assets, such as smartphones, serving as conduits for digital media. New digital assets, including certain types of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens, are created every day.{{Cite journal |last=Dowling |first=Michael |date=2022-01-01 |title=Is non-fungible token pricing driven by cryptocurrencies? |journal=Finance Research Letters |volume=44 |pages=102097 |doi=10.1016/j.frl.2021.102097 |issn=1544-6123|doi-access=free }}
In Intel's presentation at the 'Intel Developer Forum 2013,' they introduced several new types of digital assets related to medicine, education, voting, friendships, conversations, and reputation, among others.{{cite news | publisher=Computerweekly.com | year=2014 | title=What is a digital asset? | url=http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/cwdn/2013/09/what-is-a-digital-asset.html | access-date=26 October 2014 | archive-date=8 January 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108180414/http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/cwdn/2013/09/what-is-a-digital-asset.html | url-status=live }}
Digital asset management system
A digital asset management (DAM) is an integrated structure that combines software, hardware, and/or other services to manage, store, ingest, organize, and retrieve digital assets. These systems enable users to find and use content when needed.{{Cite web |date=2022-05-26 |title=Digital Asset Management |url=https://www.widen.com/resource/digital-asset-management |access-date=2022-07-14 |website=www.widen.com |publisher=Widen |language=en}}
Digital asset metadata
Metadata is data about other data. Any structured information that defines a specification of any form of data is referred to as metadata.Zhang, A. and Gourley, D. (2009). Creating digital collections. Oxford: Chandos Pub. Metadata is also a claimed relationship between two entities, often used to establish connections or associations.Rust, G. and Bide, M. (2003) The
Librarian Lorcan Dempsey says "Think of metadata as data which removes from a user (human or machine) the need to have full advance knowledge of the existence or characteristics of things of potential interest in the environment".{{cite web |last=Dempsey |first=Lorcan |date=August 20, 2006 |title=Registries: the intelligence in the network |url=http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001105.html |website=Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog |access-date=August 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031044745/http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001105.html |archive-date=31 October 2014}}
At first, the term metadata was used for digital data exclusively, but nowadays metadata can apply to both physical and digital data.
Catalogs, inventories, registers, and other similar standardized forms of organizing, managing, and retrieving resources contain metadata.
Metadata can be stored and contained directly within the file it refers to or independently from it with the help of other forms of data management such as a DAM system.
The more metadata is assigned to an asset the easier it gets to categorize it, especially as the amount of information grows. The asset's value rises the more metadata it has for it becomes more accessible, easier to manage, and more complex.{{cite web | publisher=Adobe | year=2014 | title=Metadata for Digital Asset Management - docs.day.com | url=http://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/cq/current/dam/metadata_for_digitalassetmanagement.html | access-date=26 October 2014 | archive-date=31 October 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031051012/http://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/cq/current/dam/metadata_for_digitalassetmanagement.html | url-status=live }}
Structured metadata can be shared with open protocols like OAI-PMH to allow further aggregation and processing. Open data sources like institutional repositories have thus been aggregated to form large datasets and academic search engines comprising tens of millions of open access works, like BASE, CORE, and Unpaywall.{{cite journal|first1=Kerry|last1=Dhakal|title=Unpaywall|journal=Journal of the Medical Library Association|date=15 April 2019|volume=107|issue=2|pages=286–288|pmc=6466485|doi=10.5195/jmla.2019.650}}
Issues
Due to a lack of either legislation or legal precedent, there is limited existing governmental control and regulation surrounding digital assets in the United States and other large economies globally.{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Digital_Assets_Regulation_2024.pdf |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241003210922/https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Digital_Assets_Regulation_2024.pdf |archive-date=2024-10-03 |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=www3.weforum.org}}
Many of the control issues relating to access and transferability are maintained by individual companies. Some consequences of this include 'What is to become of the assets once their owner is deceased?' as well as can, and, if so, how, may they be inherited.{{cite journal |last1=Genders |first1=Rod |last2=Steen |first2=Adam |title=Financial and estate planning in the age of digital assets: A challenge for advisers and administrators |journal=Financial Planning Research Journal |date=2017 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=6, 75 |url=https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/205776/FPRJ-V3-ISS1-pp75-80-financial-and-estate-planning-age-digital-assets.pdf |access-date=17 February 2021 |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309143812/https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/205776/FPRJ-V3-ISS1-pp75-80-financial-and-estate-planning-age-digital-assets.pdf |url-status=live }}
This subject was broached in a bogus story about Bruce Willis allegedly looking to sue Apple as the end user agreement prevented him from bequeathing his iTunes collection to his children.{{cite web | last=James | first=W. | year=2014 | title=Digital Assets; a legal minefield - Notes for STEP Verein & Basel Conference, in Zürich – 2nd October 2014 | publisher=stoanalytics.com | url=https://stoanalytics.com/article/digital-assets-a-legal-minefield/ | access-date=31 October 2014 | archive-date=3 March 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303131221/https://stoanalytics.com/article/digital-assets-a-legal-minefield/ | url-status=dead }}{{cite news | last=Arthur | first=C. | year=2012 | title=No, Bruce Willis isn't suing Apple over iTunes | newspaper=The Guardian | url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2012/sep/03/no-apple-bruce-willis | access-date=31 October 2014 | archive-date=9 March 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309143814/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2012/sep/03/no-apple-bruce-willis | url-status=live }}
Another case of this was when a soldier died on duty and the family requested access to the Yahoo! account. When Yahoo! refused to grant access, the probate judge ordered them to give the emails to the family but Yahoo! still was not required to give access.{{Cite web |url=https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&httpsredir=1&article=1374&context=faculty_publications |title=Postmortem Life On-Line |last=Cahn |first=Naomi R |date=2011 |publisher=GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works |access-date=April 10, 2022 |archive-date=12 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212032040/https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&httpsredir=1&article=1374&context=faculty_publications}}
The Music Modernization Bill was passed in September 2018 by the US Congress to create a new music licensing system, with the aim to help songwriters get paid more.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-passes-bill-updating-music-copyright-protections-for-the-spotify-era-1537919530|title=Congress Passes Bill Updating Music Copyright Protections for the Spotify Era|last=Steele|first=Anne|date=2018-09-25|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=2018-09-26|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660|archive-date=26 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926093347/https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-passes-bill-updating-music-copyright-protections-for-the-spotify-era-1537919530|url-status=live}}
Due to regulatory uncertainty, different countries have adopted various approaches to regulating cryptocurrencies, leading to a fragmented regulatory environment. While some countries, such as Switzerland and Singapore, have established clear regulatory frameworks to attract crypto businesses, others, like China and India, have imposed significant restrictions or outright bans on certain crypto activities.{{Cite journal |last=Feinstein |first=Brian D |last2=Werbach |first2=Kevin |date=2021-05-31 |title=The Impact of Cryptocurrency Regulation on Trading Markets |url=https://academic.oup.com/jfr/article/7/1/48/6248122 |journal=Journal of Financial Regulation |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=48–99 |doi=10.1093/jfr/fjab003 |issn=2053-4833|url-access=subscription }} This inconsistency creates confusion and uncertainty for market participants.
In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted a piecemeal approach to regulating digital assets, primarily through enforcement actions against various issuers and platforms for the unregistered issuance of securities. High-profile cases, such as lawsuits against cryptocurrency exchanges for operating as unregistered securities platforms, highlight this reactive strategy.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Randall |title=SEC takes aim at crypto platforms as unregistered exchanges |url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/sec-takes-aim-crypto-platforms-unregistered-exchanges-2023-07-05/ |work=Reuters |date=July 5, 2023}} This approach, while aimed at protecting investors, has led to ongoing legal uncertainties, as the SEC has not provided comprehensive regulatory guidelines, leaving market participants to navigate a landscape shaped by individual enforcement outcomes rather than proactive legislation.
By contrast, private law reform in the United States has advanced significantly with the 2022 amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), particularly through the introduction of Article 12. This article establishes "controllable electronic records" (CERs) as a new category of personal property, providing a clear legal framework for the ownership, transfer, and use as collateral of digital assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Article 12 allows CERs to be perfected by control, enhancing their negotiability and aligning legal standards with market practices.{{Cite journal |last1=Tosato |first1=Andrea |last2=Odinet |first2=Christopher K. |title=Crypto and the Property Question |journal=Florida Law Review |year=2025 |volume=forthcoming |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5151907}} It also enables the tokenization of bankruptcy claims via "controllable accounts," potentially increasing liquidity in commercial transactions.{{Cite journal |last1=Dick |first1=Diane Lourdes |last2=Odinet |first2=Christopher K. |last3=Tosato |first3=Andrea |title=Debt Tokens |journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review |year=2025 |volume=forthcoming |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4694629}} These reforms offer a stable foundation for digital asset transactions, addressing many of the uncertainties that persist in the regulatory sphere.
See also
References
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