[libreplanet-discuss] Direct data and derived data: chance for a data GPL?

[Andy Oram]

The world is abuzz with debates over user data in the hands of social media
companies and tech corporations. One of the distinctions that observers
note is between data that we provide directly--by posting--and data that is
derived from our direct data. Derived data usually draws on other people's
aggregated data and has predictive powers going way beyond what we say in
our directly posted data.

Many policy-makers have also proposed compensating the public for the data
they give to online sites.

Companies usually guard derived data assiduously and refuse to delete it
when we ask them to delete our direct data. So I wonder whether free
software proponents should propose something like the GPK or copyleft for
user data: if you use my data, you have to give me access to whatever
insights you derive from it.

Has this been discussed anywhere?


Andy Oram  |  Editor
O'Reilly Media, Inc.  |  617-499-7479 |  oreilly.com

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