Digital asset
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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 computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...
s,
laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...
s, portable media players, tablets,
data storage device Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted form ...
s, 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.


Types

Types of digital assets include, but are not limited to: software,
photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...
,
logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...
s,
illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
s,
animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...
s, audiovisual media,
presentation A presentation conveys information from a speaker to an audience. Presentations are typically demonstrations, introduction, lecture, or speech meant to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, build goodwill, or present a new idea/product. Presenta ...
s,
spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...
s,
digital painting Digital painting is either a physical painting made with the use of digital electronics and spray paint robotics within the digital art fine art context or pictorial art imagery made with pixels on a computer screen that mimics artworks from th ...
s, word documents, electronic mails,
website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...
s, and various other digital formats with their respective
metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...
. 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 A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...
and non-fungible tokens, are created every day. 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.


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.


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. Metadata is also a claimed relationship between two entities, often used to establish connections or associations. 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". 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. Structured metadata can be shared with open protocols like OAI-PMH to allow further aggregation and processing.
Open data Open data are data that are openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shareable by anyone for any purpose. Open data are generally licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-so ...
sources like institutional repositories have thus been aggregated to form large datasets and academic search engines comprising tens of millions of
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
works, like BASE, CORE, and
Unpaywall OurResearch, formerly known as ImpactStory, is a nonprofit organization that creates and distributes tools and services for libraries, institutions and researchers. The organization follows open practices with their data (to the extent allowed b ...
.


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. 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. This subject was broached in a bogus story about Bruce Willis allegedly looking to sue
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
as the end user agreement prevented him from bequeathing his
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
collection to his children. Another case of this was when a soldier died on duty and the family requested access to the
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. It also enables the tokenization of bankruptcy claims via "controllable accounts," potentially increasing liquidity in commercial transactions. These reforms offer a stable foundation for digital asset transactions, addressing many of the uncertainties that persist in the regulatory sphere.


See also

*
Digital currency Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...
*
Digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM ...
* Digital asset management *
Digital preservation In library science, library and archival science, digital preservation is a formal process to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable in the long term. It involves planning, resource allocation, and appli ...
* Digital goods * Digital inheritance *Digital
trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...


References

{{Authority control Library science Digital media Intangible assets