[Air-l] ethics - aol data - Google sidenote

[Maciej Kos]

In the meantime Google is developing eavesdropping software. 

"The first thing that came out of our mouths when we heard that Google is
working on a system that listens to what's on your TV playing in the
background, and then serves you relevant adverts, was "that's cool, but
dangerous".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/03/google_eavesdropping_software/?

I don't know what to say...

M.


On Mon, 4 Sep 2006 00:17:37 +0100, Maciej Kos wrote
> > Any application of this collection 
> > for commercial purposes is  STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
> 
> A part from my academic position I also work for a Internet Marketing/SEO
> company. I don't see how such a statement could stop anybody from 
> using this data. If you don't use it and your competitors do, you 
> may even eventually go broke. It is a do-or-die situation.
> 
> I myself have not used the data for commercial purposes but there 
> are tones of people doing it.
> 
> Just my two cents.
> 
> M.
> 
> > 
> > On Aug 29, 2006, at 3:55 PM, burkx006 at umn.edu wrote:
> > 
> > > On Aug 29 2006, Jeremy Hunsinger wrote:
> > >
> > >>> Property is a word that has to be used very carefully -- I'm not
> > >>> sure that
> > >>> the data can be called their property in any formal sense. It
> > >>> cannot (with
> > >>> a couple of caveats) be the subject matter of patent or copyright.
> > >>
> > >> The collection a whole or in part as held as a whole in a database
> > >> could be copyrighted i thought.   Wasn't that a law that passed a few
> > >> years ago that we all protested, but it was pretty much passed
> > >> anyway?   I may be mistaken here, but I seem to recall that passing.
> > >
> > > Copyright does not cover facts. It could cover the original  
> > > selection and
> > > arrangement of facts, but an access log or similar compilation  
> > > probably
> > > does not qualify as original in selection and arrangement -- it likely
> > > includes all the access data, in a format dictated by the technical
> > > architecture.
> > >
> > > The EU member states and some other countries have a separate form of
> > > intellectual property covering databases in which there has been a
> > > substantial commercial investment. Recent decisions suggest that  
> > > computer
> > > logs wouldn't qualify for that, either.
> > >
> > >> here are what i thought they could do more or less:  Control the
> > >> data, Benefit or license access to the data, transfer or sell the
> > >> data, exclude others from the data.  those are all traditional
> > >> property rights... i think...
> > >
> > > They can do some of these things, but because of their property  
> > > rights in
> > > their hardware/software -- not in the data. See the "horse is out  
> > > of the
> > > barn" comment below.
> > >
> > >> yes, i was not thinking trade secrecy, that would be an interesting
> > >> argument, but, I'm not sure it what would be a secret there, unless
> > >> it is the whole of the collection of data, because google like aol
> > >> has given access to parts of their data before.
> > >
> > > For trade secrecy, the information must "not be generally known" to
> > > competitors.
> > >
> > >>> For example, I don't think that AOL has any
> > >>> ability to control use of the data they accidentally released.
> > >>
> > >> it wasn't an accidental release, was it.  I thought it was released
> > >> under license to researchers and then people re-released it.
> > >
> > > My understanding was that the re-release was unintentional (on  
> > > AOL's part,
> > > anyway). In any event, intentional or not, once it's out of the  
> > > barn, they
> > > have no ability -- which is to say no property right -- to prevent  
> > > its use
> > > by whomever happens upon it.
> > >
> > >>> I am speaking at IASTED Law/Tech on a version such claims in the
> > >>> context of
> > >>> "fantasy sports" data representations:
> > >>> http://www.iasted.org/conferences/keynote-545.html
> > >>
> > >> there was just another lawsuit on that and baseball wasn't there?
> > >> that is a bit different I think because arguably all of the data that
> > >> you need to play fantasy sports can be found in your daily
> > >> newspaper.
> > >
> > > In each case, the question is the extent to which data about an  
> > > individual
> > > maps onto the persona of the individual.
> > >
> > > -- 
> > > Dan L. Burk
> > > Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly Professor
> > > University of Minnesota Law School
> > > 229 19th Avenue South
> > > Minneapolis, MN  55455
> > > **********************************
> > > voice: 612-626-8726
> > > fax: 612-625-2011
> > >
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