Comment by JumpCrisscross
9 hours ago
> Data can't be owned in the first place
Of course it can. Ownership is a social construct.
It’s more accurate to say data resists being controlled. But honestly, so do e.g. air and mineral rights and the “ownership” of catalytic converters in cars parked on the street.
We've built a lot of layers of social machinery on top of it, but looking at the behavior of animals, ownership predates humanity, let alone social convention. Coming at it from that direction, something can be private property only if it is defensible in principle. Physical objects meet this bar, but concepts and types do not.
> something can be private property only if it is defensible in principle. Physical objects meet this bar, but concepts and types do not
Why not? I sing song. You sing song. I beat you with stick because that’s my song. You stop singing song.
Well it really comes down to how good you are with that stick. You "can" stop me from singing your song... But can you? You don't even know where I am.
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There's multiple types of ownership.
There's legal title. And then there's possession.
AA clearly possesses this data. It's not incorrect for them to refer to it as "their" data, until and unless it is removed from their possession.
> It's not incorrect for them to refer to it as "their" data
Totally agree.
Yes, but it is a social contract governing things that can't be easily copied.
We desperately need better social contracts which help us deal with data-about-me and data-i-created, but neither of those align very well with property.
I own paper money that is pretty easy to copy and worth far more than the paper it's on...
Easier to copy than a bit?
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> but it is a social contract governing things that can't be easily copied
I think it’s fair to argue this makes data something that should not be able to be owned. But saying it can’t be owned is plain wrong.
You're right. We can implement social contracts however we please.
But regarding the particular implementation as codified in US law (and I think elsewhere also), property rights do not extend to data.
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You don't distinguish between the data and the data source.
Plenty of data becomes stale almost immediately. Plenty of data sources can be owned, but they also tend to be people.