Ownership of Open Data: Governance Options for Agriculture and Nutrition

Abstract

Ownership rights are a major factor in access and use of open data, distinct from yet as important as the availability of education, skills, technology, infrastructure, and finances. There are real deficits in law, understanding, and frameworks for governing open data ownership. These challenges must be addressed to achieve meaningful and equitable open data as default. The chief policy lesson from this paper is that moving to a model where data is open as default requires change in legal, social and technological norms, which all influence ownership of agriculture and nutrition data. Copyrights are not the only, nor even most important, legal rights establishing ownership of data. Relevant legal rights that facilitate access to and use of data at the international, national and subnational level include copyrights, database rights, technical protection measures, trade secrets, and patents and plant breeders’ rights, privacy and even tangible property rights. The open data community must broaden its engagement in all these areas to address emerging challenges. Open data is often achieved by persuading data owners to voluntarily licence their rights on open terms. Open licensing contracts are important to transfer legal rights between parties, but licences do not create new rights that would bind all stakeholders or change overarching data governance structures. Most legal rights to data are owned by intermediaries that invest in the selection of data, arrangement of databases, safeguarding of confidential information, or similar activities. The lack of enforceable data rights owned by certain communities, particularly smallholder farmers, contributes to inequality and marginalization. The line between data and traditional knowledge is blurred in indigenous knowledge systems. Ethically, informed consent to use such data should be sought, although legally, rights are just starting to be recognized in international law. The current contract-based model for ownership of open data leaves many stakeholders vulnerable to the whims of entities that own data, without addressing more systemic challenges and opportunities for open data governance. Meanwhile, expanding ownership rights to protect individual or community data providers could cause significant complications for the intermediaries that practice and promote open data. Several real-world case stories demonstrate the challenges of open data ownership for farmers and grassroots community groups, non/inter-governmental organizations, and multinational commercial entities. There are four possible governance strategies for ownership of open agricultural and nutrition data. First, interinstitutional cooperation can help build understanding and consensus about the terms and conditions of ownership of open data. Second, model frameworks adopted at the local, national or regional level can offer a governance example other jurisdictions might emulate. Third, a social certification scheme can leverage the power of ethical consumerism and market pressures to promote best open data practices. Fourth, stakeholders can work toward an international agreement on ownership of open data. The task for GODAN and others in the open data community is to engage with the challenges outlined in this paper, in order to facilitate more inclusive sharing of the benefits of open data.