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38 Sydney L. Rev. 441 (2016)
What's in a Name: Software, Digital Products, and the Sale of Goods

handle is hein.journals/sydney38 and id is 449 raw text is: What's in a Name? Software, Digital Products, and the Sale of Goods Benjamin Hayward* Abstract This article addresses how the advent of trade in computer software, and now digital products, has challenged the application of sales law and consumer law. It addresses the law of three jurisdictions: the United Kingdom ('UK'), Australia and New Zealand. Often, applying the 'goods' criterion in these regimes will be uncontroversial. Nevertheless, modern market conditions have created a need to move beyond the existing question of whether software constitutes 'goods', and instead to ask how a range of different types of digital products fit into sales law and consumer law regimes. Many legal systems have settled the software-as-goods question. However, software is only one kind of commonly traded digital product. This article argues that other types of digital products including apps, firmware, digital music and electronic books should be treated the same way as software by sales law and consumer law regimes. Recent developments in UK consumer law are also analysed as an innovative model for reform regarding party rights and obligations in the supply of digital products. I Introduction For over 100 years, common law legal systems have applied special legal regimes to the sale of goods. The Sale of Goods Act 1893 (UK) set the standard for the common law world. In the United Kingdom ('UK'), the original 1893 Act is now consolidated by the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (UK). It was also the basis for derivative Sale of Goods Acts now in force in each of the Australian states and territories - the Sale of Goods Act 1954 (ACT), the Sale of Goods Act 1923 (NSW), the Sale of Goods Act 1972 (NT), the Sale of Goods Act 1896 (Qld), the Sale of Goods Act 1895 (SA), the Sale of Goods Act 1896 (Tas), the Goods Act 1958 (Vic) and the Sale of Goods Act 1895 (WA) - as well as New Zealand's Sale of Goods Act 1908 (NZ). This UK, Australian and New Zealand ('NZ') legislation applies alongside the common law in regulating sales of goods. The Lecturer, Deakin Law School, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia; Coach, Deakin Law School's Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot and Vis (East) Moot teams. Any errors remain the author's own.

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