[Reposted from thehaguedeclaration.com] The Hague Declaration is currently in draft form. The draft contains a list of basic principles. We welcome your comments on the text below. Please share your thoughts up until February 13th via the comment form on this page or on the discussion platform Discuto. Note, this document is far from final and after a further drafting process with the Declaration working group the definitive version will be released in April.
As recognised in the G8 Open Data Charter, new technologies are revolutionising the way humans can learn about the world and about themselves.
These technologies are not only a means of dealing with the data deluge, they are the key to knowledge discovery in the digital age and their power is predicated on the increasing availability of data itself. Factors such as increasing computing power, the growth of the Web, governmental commitment to open access to publically funded research are serving to increase the availability of facts, data and ideas.
Other factors, such as maladapted intellectual property law and gaps in access to technology and skills are acting to limit the power of digital content analysis techniques such as content mining and are creating inequalities in terms of access to opportunities for knowledge discovery in the digital age.
Computer analysis of content in all formats enables access to undiscovered public knowledge and provides important insights across every aspect of our economic, social and cultural life.
The potential benefits are vast and include:
- Addressing grand challenges such as climate change and global epidemics
- Improving population health, wealth and development
- Creating new jobs and employment
- Exponentially increasing the speed and progress of science through new insights and greater efficiency of research
- Increasing transparency of governments
- Fostering innovation and collaboration and boosting the impact of open science
- Creating tools for education and research
- Providing new and richer cultural insights
- Speeding economic and social development in all parts of the globe
In this age of opportunity it is important that all members of society can benefit equally from the potential of the growing availability of digital content and the application of digital technologies to exploit this content for knowledge discovery. This requires the creation of new principles around access to facts, data and ideas and the reinforcement of established principles.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, in recognition of the huge potential economic and societal benefits of knowledge discovery in the digital age, endorse the following principles:
1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WAS NOT DESIGNED TO REGULATE THE FREE FLOW OF FACTS, DATA AND IDEAS, NOR SHOULD IT.
The free flow of information and ideas is an essential human right. It is a catalyst for the production of human knowledge, which underpins welfare and prosperity. Societies around the world have chosen to protect certain limited rights in intellectual property as incentives both to innovation and the dissemination of knowledge. Intellectual property law was never intended to cover facts, ideas and pure data. However the modern application of intellectual property law is increasingly becoming an obstacle to knowledge creation and dissemination that uses even these most simple building blocks of knowledge .
Copyright law1 in particular has been interpreted to restrict the ability to apply computer reading and analysis of otherwise legally-available content. When intellectual property law allows content to be read and analysed manually by humans but not by their machines, it has failed its original purposes. Policy makers should aim to provide legal clarity in this area by ensuring that content mining is not an infringement of copyright or related rights.
2. THE RIGHT TO READ INCLUDES THE RIGHT TO MINE.
As with the right to read, all citizens globally should have the ability to read and analyse facts using computers, therefore enjoying the opportunities and benefits that access to quality digital information and tools present.
3. FREEDOM TO ANALYSE AND PURSUE INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY WITHOUT FEAR OF MONITORING OR REPERCUSSIONS MUST NOT BE ERODED IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT.
Providers of content should respect the intellectual privacy of readers, and should treat the records of reading and intellectual exploration as presumptively confidential. Licences and contract terms that regulate and restrict how individuals may analyse and use facts, data and ideas are unacceptable and inhibit innovation and the creation of new knowledge and, therefore, should be prohibited by law.
4. ETHICS AROUND THE USE OF DATA AND CONTENT MINING WILL NEED TO CONTINUE TO EVOLVE IN RESPONSE TO CHANGING TECHNOLOGY.
The Observation of well-established ethical norms as well as continued development of ethical standards in light of the evolving landscape and potential of technology must be supported and encouraged in order to ensure that content mining technologies are deployed ethically and for the benefit of society. The free use of facts, data and ideas must not prejudice the right of individuals to privacy and a private life.
5. OPEN ACCESS AS A ‘COMPREHENSIVE SOURCE OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL HERITAGE’2 MUST BE PURSUED IN ORDER TO INCREASE THE UPTAKE OF AND EQUALITY OF ACCESS TO CONTENT MINING TECHNOLOGIES.
The growth of open access has been a key enabler for content mining; increasing the return on investment in an open access infrastructure exponentially. It is now time to aim to move beyond the open access tipping point towards comprehensive integration of open access into the research workflow. This can be achieved by providing real incentives for open access to research results and data, and the development and support of sustainable global and interoperable public infrastructure for access and reuse.
6. INNOVATION AND COMMERCIAL RESEARCH BASED ON THE USE OF FACTS, DATA AND IDEAS SHOULD NOT BE RESTRICTED BY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW.
As facts, data, and ideas are not copyrightable it does not make sense to restrict ethical commercial use of those facts, data, and ideas extracted from content which has been obtained legally. Doing so will only result in a chilling effect on innovation, and economic development globally. It will also reduce the availability of technology which can benefit citizens in the areas of health, science, employment, research, environmental and culture.
Definition: Content mining, otherwise known as Text and Data Mining (TDM), is the process of deriving information from machine-readable material. It works by copying large quantities of material, extracting the data, and recombining it to identify patterns and trends.
Scope: This declaration applies to the content to which individuals have legal access. It does not apply to content which has been illegally obtained or is used to infringe on personal privacy.
1 And in the European Union database laws also in the form of the Database Directive.
2 This quote comes from the Berlin Declaration.
