Intellectual property rights?

[Andrew Hopkins]

Hi Rob,

   Astronomical IP is an area that has not really been much of an
issue to date - unlike many sciences, most astro researchers
are quite open to sharing data, after a nominal prioprietary
period has passed. This traditional method is starting to change,
though, with various large projects adopting extended proprietary
periods, although primarily to ensure quality control rather than
out of a sense of ownership or copyright. Ultimately the data
are only going to be used by the community if access to it is open.

I think that copyright is a particularly bad model for astronomical
data access control, similarly for patent law - the main reason for
copyright or patents is to allow the inventors/authors of a saleable
commodity to have time to profit from their work/invention. In astronomy
there is no presumption of "creation" in the same way - the sky is
there and can be observed by anyone (with the technical know-how
to build the instruments to do so), so (in principle at least) the
data cannot or at least *should* not be "owned" by anyone in this way.

I don't think I've heard of a case of an observatory citing copyright
to prevent people getting hold of data that is outside the proprietary
period (or even inside - they would simply cite the proprietary period).
Can you fill me in if there are well-known examples?

In any case, I think all major survey projects these days are moving
towards a model of making data public with shorter and shorter
proprietary periods (within the limits required for quality control).
I think a simple time-limit model for access control would be sufficient
for almost all cases.

I can imagine that some teams may withhold data *products* (catalogues,
processed images/spectra) for more extended periods, to maximise their
scientific return, but then they are unlikely to host them in a
distributed access infrastructure like the VO in that case, or if they
are could simply apply an extended time-limit for access control
(with "extended" potentially being infinite, and perhaps being
modifiable after the fact).

Andrew Hopkins

> A new topic.  Curation and preservation of data are dependent on a more 
> fundamental issue - ownership.  This IG seems the likeliest place within 
> the IVOA to discuss issues of astronomical IP rights.  For instance, 
> various discussions in the astronomical software community over the 
> years have suggested that copyright is the appropriate legal theory to 
> apply to "ownership" of astronomical data.  Is this actually true?
> 
> Something like copyright is necessary as the fundamental basis for 
> protecting proprietary data rights for our users.  (Otherwise, what is 
> being safeguarded by our archives' access restrictions?)  Copyright (or 
> other IP model) is also desirable for various reasons to protect 
> post-proprietary archive holdings.
> 
> In any event, the expiration of the proprietary period for the original 
> investigator is an issue distinct from the IP rights of the 
> observatory.  Rarely is copyright asserted by observers, but rather by 
> observatories.
> 
> One aspect of copyright is that it is designed to expire, ultimately 
> leaving the content (data) in the public domain.  What will the 
> implications then be for continued curation of such data?
> 
> Another issue is that copyright can be thrown into limbo with the 
> conclusion of a project, closure of an organization, or death of a P.I.  
> As an analogy, books often go out of print.  Even if such data remain 
> accessible within an archive, and federated by the VO (or Grid), IP 
> considerations may make distribution of pertaining datasets legally 
> ambiguous.
> 
> Comments?
> 
> Rob Seaman
> NOAO


-- 
Dr Andrew Hopkins, Head of AAT Science
Anglo-Australian Observatory
P.O. Box 296, Epping
NSW 1710, Australia
ph: +61 2 9372 4849  fax: +61 2 9372 4880