Contracting for the ‘Internet of Things’ : looking into the nest
Noto La Diega, Guido and Walden, Ian (2016) Contracting for the ‘Internet of Things’ : looking into the nest. European Journal of Law and Technology, 7 (2). ISSN 2042-115X
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Abstract
The world of the 'Internet of Things' ('IoT') is just one manifestation of recent developments in information and communication technologies ('ICTs'), closely tied to others, including 'cloud computing' and 'big data'. For our purposes, the 'Thing' in the IoT is any physical entity capable of connectivity that directly interfaces the physical world, such as embedded devices, sensors and actuators. In considering IoT contracts, this paper adopts a case study approach, examining the complexity of IoT through the lens of a specific product: the Nest connected thermostat, part of the Nest Labs business and owned by Google. We focus on the 'legals' of Nest (contractual documents, licences, etc.) to provide a case study of IoT complexity. After touching on some general contract law issues in relation to the IoT supply chain, we examine the rights and obligations represented in these legals and discuss the extent to which, collectively, they present a coherent and comprehensible private law framework. We then consider the extent to which certain statutory regimes may treat IoT contracts in terms of addressing two characteristic contractual concerns: liability attribution and unfair terms. Our main conclusion is that the world of IoT demonstrates a need to consider recasting the concept of product to reflect the frequent inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service.
ORCID iDs
Noto La Diega, Guido ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6918-5398 and Walden, Ian;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 90213 Dates: DateEvent25 September 2016PublishedSubjects: Law > Law (General)
Science > Mathematics > Electronic computers. Computer scienceDepartment: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Strathclyde Law School > Law Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 13 Aug 2024 10:02 Last modified: 02 Oct 2024 00:42 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/90213