Data: legal issues

15 April 2013

Marianne Renkema & Liza Bruggenkamp

Two situations

A researcher wants to protect his own data

A researcher wants to use data from other people

Legal issues

No legal protection

Protection by copyright

Protection by database right

Privacy

No legal protection

Raw data or facts

Government data

The effort in producing data

Keep them secret

●Not ethical

●Contract with funding agent

Protection by copyright

The form in which data are presented

The selection or structure

Copyright or authors’ rights

Economic or exploitation rights

Exclusive right to:

●Publish the work

●Duplicate/reproduce the work

Moral or personality rights

Right to oppose to:

●your work being published without your name or with a different title

●Radical changes that harm your good name

http://www.ivir.nl/legislation/nl/copyrightact.html

Copyright notice

Automatic protection

Duration:

●Until 70 years after author's death

●Until 70 years after publication (anonymous work)

A copyright notice is not required, but it…

●Makes clear that the work is copyright protected

●Shows who the copyright owner is

Copyright 2010, John Johnson

© John Johnson 2010

Copyright owner

Initially:

Creator

Employer of the creator (art 7 Aw)

Copyright can be given away, sold, inherited, waived, claimed by funding agent, ...

What if data is copyright protected?

Can you use the data without consent?

Can you publish the data without consent?

Can you use a figure of table with data from someone’s publication in your own publication without consent?

Database right

The legal definition of a database comprises three essential elements:

the database must consist of independent items

the database must be searchable or systematically arranged so that the individual items can be traced

there must have been a substantial investment in the database (obtaining, presenting, and/or verifying the data)

Protection of the investment in time and money

Duration 15 Years

Example 1: USDA Nutrient database

Example 1: USDA Nutrient database(2)

Example 2: Scopus (bibliographic database)

Example 2: Scopus (2)

Database right: required permissions

The producer’s consent is required for the following actions:

retrieving (i.e. copying or downloading) substantial portions of the database

repeatedly and systematically retrieving non-substantial portions of the database

reusing (i.e. publishing) substantial portions of the database

Exceptions: government database; scientific use (not reuse)

Privacy

Personal Data Protection Act

Living persons

The data should be anonymized if possible

The purpose for which the data is necessary must in any case be clearly specified

No more data may be collected than is necessary to achieve that purpose

You need consent of the individual

Back to the two situations

A researcher wants to protect his own data

●Don’t publish

●Publish (about) the data and make data available on request (Facebook)

●Publish about the data, make data freely available and make a rights statement or licence (“terms of use”) (ADHD)

A researcher wants to use data from other people example

●He can download and use the data

●He cannot publish the data(base) without permission

Facebook: data available on request?

http://www.nature.com/news/facebook-likes-the-scientific-method-1.11064

Data made available via DANS

https://easy.dans.knaw.nl/ui/datasets/id/easy-dataset:50991/tab/1

Data files in DANS

UniProt (http://www.uniprot.org/help/license)

Data licensing

Why license research data?

Clarity

No license:

Is the data protected or not?

Do I need to ask permission for use and reuse?

Types of licenses

Source: Alex Ball, 2011. Presentation on Data licensing.

Licensing options

Most repositories or databases use a standard license or have a terms of use statement.

Bespoke licences

●e.g. DANS repository (Conditions of use)

Standard licenses

●Creative Commons (see UniProt)

●CC0 most used

●Open Data Commons

Case

Who is the owner of the data?

What would you do in a situation like this?

Further reading

De Cock Buning, M., Ringnalda, A., van der Linden, T. (2009). The legal status of raw data: a guide for research practice. Utrecht: SURF Foundation. Available online: http://www.surf.nl/en/publicaties/Documents/SURFdirect_De%20juridische%20status%20van%20ruwe%20data_wegwijzer_ENG.pdf

Ball, A. (2012). ‘How to License Research Data’. DCC How-to Guides. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Available online: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/license-research-data

Questions?