Protection of and access to relevant data - General Issues

• Main Authors: LIU, Kung-chung, ZHENG, Shufeng
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: data specifically generated for the purpose of AI; big data; copyright-protected data; Data standardization; data trading; Privacy Law; Science and Technology Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/4058; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99433712202601&context=L&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Artificial%20Intelligence%20%26%20Intellectual%20Property&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This chapter discusses the protection of relevant data and issues that might block access to such data. For the purposre of this chapter there are at least three kinds of data, data specifically generated for the purpose of AI the big data, and copyright protected data, each having its unique issues concerning protection and access. This chapter comes to the conclusions: Data specifically generated for AI should qualify as works worthy of copyright protection as compilations. If such data are public sector information, measures that may facilitate the widest re-uses of public data should be taken. If such data are from the private sector, attention needs to be paid to whether these data are of critical importance and whether there are scenarios where the use of competition law and/or ex ante regulation will be needed to ensure access. The issue of protection of big data should not be addressed in the sense or direction of giving proprietary entitlement over big data to any entity. When looking at the private-sector components of big data, there are legal, technical and market factors working against the formation, accumulation and free flow of big data. When looking at the public-sector components of big data, both the importance of open data and the re-use of public sector information come to the fore. Concerning the issue of accessing big data, there are barriers to its collection, storage, synthesis, analysis, and usage. However, behavioural barriers warrant special scrutiny. In that regard, competition law as an ex post remedy can be relied upon but is of limited use; therefore sector-specific regulation might be needed. As for copyright-protected data, the real issue is more about access than protection.