Debate: Should Digital Files be Property?

Should digital files attract property rights? And should parties be able to call upon proprietary remedies in disputes over a digital file? For example, suppose you store a Word document in the cloud. A third party obtains access to your account and deletes the file from the cloud. Should you be able to sue that third party for damages, by calling upon a proprietary remedy like the tort of conversion? And what if the third party made a copy of the file on their own device, before deleting the original file from the cloud? Should you have a remedy for return of the copy of the file? Is the notion of a property right in a digital file conceptually coherent? And if so, is it useful?

These questions form part of a broader global debate on digital assets, including in-game items and crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 leaves the door open for a new ‘third category’ of things – beyond things in possession and things in action – to be protected as personal property under English law. So, could this ‘third category’ include digital files? Should it?

On 25 June 2026, Dave Michels and Kelvin Low will debate the proposition that “the law does not protect digital files as property, nor should it”. Dave will argue that digital files are valuable virtual objects which can be a good fit for property rights. By contrast, Kelvin will argue that digital files do not exist in any sense that is relevant under property law. Just as all that glitters is not gold, digital files - though valuable - are not things that should attract property rights.

The debate will be moderated by Tanya Aplin, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.

Welcome remarks: Professor Christopher Millard

Speaker Profiles:

Professor Kelvin Low

Kelvin F.K. Low is Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Private Law at the University of Hong Kong. His research interest spans the field of private law but with a particular interest in property, broadly defined. He has published internationally with leading journals such as the American Journal of Comparative Law, the International & Comparative Law Quarterly, Legal Studies, Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, the Law Quarterly Review, the Melbourne University Law Review, and the Modern Law Review. He is a co-author (together with Michael Bridge, Louise Gullifer, and Gerard McMeel) of the 2nd and 3rd editions of The Law of Personal Property, and co-author (together with Tang Hang Wu) of the 3rd and 4th editions of Tan Sook Yee's Principles of Singapore Land Law. His works have been cited by the courts in Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore as well as law commissions and law reform bodies in Australia, England and Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Singapore.

Dave Michels

Dave Michels is a researcher with the Cloud Legal Project at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, and a Guest Teacher at the London School of Economics. He has published articles covering cloud and IT services in leading US, UK, and European law journals and is a contributing author to the Cloud Computing Law book (OUP, 2021). He is currently pursuing a PhD on the topic of property rights in digital assets. His research on digital assets has been cited by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Singapore Court of Appeal, and the Law Commission of England and Wales. He has received research funding from Microsoft and Broadcom and was awarded an Outstanding Early Career Visiting Fellowship by Hong Kong University in 2025.

Professor Tanya Aplin

Tanya Aplin is a Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London and a Door Tenant at Three New Square chambers. She serves on the Editorial Board for the Modern Law Review, Current Legal Problems and the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property and is General Editor for the Information Law and Regulation series published by Hart. Her teaching and research interests include IP law and technological disruption, the interface between patents and trade secrets in relation to medical innovation and IP issues of the data economy. She has published widely, including leading textbooks, treatises and monographs.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher The Centre for Commercial Law Studies, QMUL