Slashdot Mirror
EU Ruling: Self-Driving Car Data Will Be Copyrighted By the Manufacturer (boingboing.net)
Yesterday, at a routine vote on regulations for self-driving cars, members of the European Peoples' Party voted down a clause that would protect a vehicle's telemetry so that it couldn't become someone's property. The clause affirmed that "data generated by autonomous transport are automatically generated and are by nature not creative, thus making copyright protection or the right on data-bases inapplicable." Boing Boing reports: This is data that we will need to evaluate the safety of autonomous vehicles, to fine-tune their performance, to ensure that they are working as the manufacturer claims -- data that will not be public domain (as copyright law dictates), but will instead be someone's exclusive purview, to release or withhold as they see fit. Who will own this data? It's unlikely that it will be the owners of the vehicles.
It's already the case that most auto manufacturers use license agreements and DRM to lock up your car so that you can't fix it yourself or take it to an independent service center. The aggregated data from millions of self-driving cars across the EU aren't just useful to public safety analysts, consumer rights advocates, security researchers and reviewers (who would benefit from this data living in the public domain) -- it is also a potential gold-mine for car manufacturers who could sell it to insurers, market researchers and other deep-pocketed corporate interests who can profit by hiding that data from the public who generate it and who must share their cities and streets with high-speed killer robots.
It's already the case that most auto manufacturers use license agreements and DRM to lock up your car so that you can't fix it yourself or take it to an independent service center. The aggregated data from millions of self-driving cars across the EU aren't just useful to public safety analysts, consumer rights advocates, security researchers and reviewers (who would benefit from this data living in the public domain) -- it is also a potential gold-mine for car manufacturers who could sell it to insurers, market researchers and other deep-pocketed corporate interests who can profit by hiding that data from the public who generate it and who must share their cities and streets with high-speed killer robots.
Self-Driving Car Data Will Be Copyrighted By the Manufacturer
"data generated by autonomous transport are automatically generated and are by nature not creative, thus making copyright protection or the right on data-bases inapplicable."
Surely stating that copyright protection is not applicable means that the manufacturer cannot copyright it either.
IANAL, but I've done some research on database copyright law in the EU. So, in the EU, databases (which aren't necessarily data kept in a DBMS, but just collections of data) are not copyrightable except in case of 'sui generis' databases, which are copyrightable 'if they constitute intellectual creation by virtue of the selection or arrangement of their contents.' The conditions a database needs to meet in order to constitute intellectual creation have always been a little unclear to me.
Anyway, whoever wrote the struck-down clause was trying to affirm that these data do not qualify as sui generis, and therefore cannot be copyrighted. But just because the clause was removed doesn't make it obvious that the data do qualify as sui generis and therefore are eligible for copyright. I suspect it kicks the question down the road to some kind of court proceedings. But that's just a guess; it'll be interesting to see what happens.
OK, so let's say the self-driving car company holds a copyright on the data generated by your movements around town, but Google is already collecting this data and probably a bunch of other companies as well. Does this set up a legal battle when that information gets sold to third parties, as it inevitably will? I wonder, when every corporation is able to track everything we do, will our personal data still have any value to them? If they can't use it to gain advantage, will they still fight so hard to collect it?
So will it take an criminal trial to force them to give out the data?? Say just an basic civil case they can say no DATA for you.
You can make a book that contains the sunrise and sunset times and copyright the book. No one is allowed to copy your book.
You can't stop anyone making their own book with the exact same data, as your copyright on your book only protects your designed and layout of the actual book, The data wasn't created by anyone, it's just raw data representing something that happened.
Copyright protects creative effort. If there is nothing creative*, it has no protection.
* for various definitions of "creative"
The clause which was removed disallowed copyright on telemetry data, but removing it does not give that copyright to the manufacturer. This does leave room for a law which gives a non-transferable copyright to the driver of the car.
This is unlikely, the party which voted to remove this clause seems to be firmly in the pocket of business interests, but it's not fair to say that they've sold everyone out just yet.
I'm not a lawyer, but who ever does the work to make the data - the owner of the car telling it to go somewhere - owns the copyright.
It's like Adobe saying anything you create in Photoshop is the exclusive property of Adobe.
It's either data and can't be copyrighted, it's owned by the owner of the vehicle, or the vehicle owner has explicitly transferred the rights of the information.
Oh good lord.
1: When the company sells the car to you, why should the data the car generates remain their property?
2: What market? Auto manufacture and sale is one of the most heavily regulated industries almost everywhere.
3: Where you reading the European Constitution? Because TFA is about Europe.
4: If you were talking about the US Constitution, why would Europeans pay any mind to a 230 year old document? It has next to no bearing on the real world in 2018.
Could this be the EU's way of blocking the right to repair?
Reading the data from the car and doing repair work is an opening to counterfeiting?
Would the EU like to see only authorized companies able to use the car data?
The loss of any freedom to talk about EU car repair on the internet?
What happens when the car owner violates EU car copyright laws?
Your car needs a service.
The car company believes no car should get an unauthorized service.
You are an unfit car owner.
Your car will be placed in the custody of the car company.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Spend your free time at local car dealerships, asking to see cars that don't collect data. Leave when they fail to guarantee it. If you're really bored, start the purchase process and back out at the last minute when you "realize" that the cars collect and share data about you that is beyond your control. The dealerships will put pressure on the manufacturers, or they will sell different cars.
and "Intellectual Property" too while we're at it. If the ruling class is going to claim ownership of everything that's fine, but we'll tax the heck out of it so they can't use that ownership to gut the commons. Or, well, we'll let them gut the commons and go back to the gilded age. Not sure which yet.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
who owns airplane black box data?
as the same type of data needs to be same say in self driving cars
The data wasn't created by anyone, it's just raw data representing something that happened.
So if I strap a GoPro to my helmet and I bike around the world, I have no copyright on the video ?
It won't be your car for long, auto makers will take a page from Microsoft's business model and go to subscriptions. I'm not talking about leasing either. I mean like you can be driving down the road and they push an update with new terms of service and if you don't accept the car stops, and sometimes the update will eject your passenger ... Or maybe accidentally erase all that data we're debating.
You have the same rights a director would.
You can't stop anyone else from recording video of the same things you did though.
It is a bit weird, but it appears in the EU the situation on this data ownership is now: You can force the manufacturer to provide you with everything they have on you in a readable form (so you legally own a copy of your data) and you can subsequently force them to erase everything they have on you (so they don't own the original any longer).
If you are in one of the five eyes nations the new class of Access and Assistance Bills our Attorney Generals are negotiating will mean data generated by your car can be legally taken without your knowledge and used as evidence against you.
See section 27D
You had better not unknowingly go anywhere or be around someone you should not.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
I don't think the manufacturers of the vehicles that collect the data are going to stop other cars from travelling the same road and also recording their data.
Looks like you focussed on whether the USA constitution was 230 years old or not, but missed the fact that it does not wash in Europe anyway.
So if I strap a GoPro to my helmet and I bike around the world, I have no copyright on the video ?
According to this, no you have not. And if some "improved" GoPro in the future were to radio your data back to GoPro's office (or to anyone they sold the link to) they could do what they liked with it including putting your journey on YouTube.
Until all the car companies decide to lock up their data in the same way, keeping competition out of the equation. It is the same process by which airlines have those insane business rules that all consumers hate but which all airlines enforce, so you’re screwed.
We’re going to need legislation to pry that data loose.
Also, the core document plus amendments is not the whole of the Constitution, there is also the entire body of legal precedent. The UK has no written Constitution as a central document, their whole thing is various traditions and precedents.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
1: When the company sells the car to you, why should the data the car generates remain their property?
Do you want them to be liable if the self-driving system causes an accident? Since they need that data both to evaluate liability and to improve their system to reduce their liability, that seems like a reasonable trade. If you want to own the data, fine, but then they're not liable for any accidents caused by the system.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Why? They still don't need to own the rights to do any of that.
If they don't own the data, they at least need a license to use it.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Sure, why not? They still don't need to own the data.