Databases and software development: what are the legal issues? – Lexology

With technological development, it is possible to create software that will be used in a variety of economic sectors, such as predictive software for medical devices, management software, or technical software for construction, architecture, and engineering.

Creating computer software represents an activity of “resolution of problems”, according to the problem-solving method, based on a series of steps, including algorithm development.

Specifically, for algorithms to perform the operations necessary for problem-solving, they must be validated/trained using data selected from the database by the programmer.

However, attention must be paid to the type of data to be used, as it may be subject to privacy regulations, be licensed, or be “open”.

The problem, therefore, arises if one intends to create software that is destined for commercialization, especially concerning the necessary steps to be taken for the use of the data used to develop the algorithm.

What are the methods of access to the databases?

The access and the use of the data in the databases can be achieved through:

1. User licenses

The UE legislation (Dir. 96/9/EC) provides for a series of rights to the author of the database, who will have the exclusive right to perform or authorize the reproduction, distribution, translation, or adaptation of the work but also to exclude operations of extraction and reuse of all or a substantial part of the database.

The data in the databases can then be licensed by their author, through the express indication of the manner and purpose of use of the data, the possibility or not of sharing, the subjects who can access them, and possible penalties in case of a breach.

In fact, it often happens that access to databases is through licenses granted free of charge, but for scientific research purposes only, thus not allowing commercial use.

If one intends to use the data of a licensed database for commercial purposes, it will therefore be necessary to pay particular attention to the following aspects:

• verify that the license allows the data used for algorithm training and validation to be used for commercial purposes;
• or, if this is not contractually provided for, attempt to negotiate specific licenses of use with the owner of the database to be able to include the results obtained in software intended for commercialization.

2. Open data

The use of Open data, made available by the Digital Italy Agency to be used by computer programs intended for the development of new services for citizens, is also becoming increasingly widespread.

These are data shared by public administrations such as municipalities, regions, or local authorities, covering different economic sectors such as health, education, culture and sports, science, technology, etc.

The “open” data and documents published on www.dati.gov.it unless otherwise specified, are available under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license, and are therefore freely distributable and reusable, provided that the source is always mentioned and where possible the web address of the original page is given.

The advantage, therefore, lies in the possibility of extracting, reusing, reproducing, and sharing all the contents of the database and possibly incorporating them into a new database created by the programmer, freely and free of charge, fulfilling the sole burden of mentioning the source.

Some considerations

There are many possibilities for data exploitation, constituting an important opportunity for businesses and economic operators in Italy.

Nevertheless, there are still some cautions to be taken, carefully examining the origin of the data one intends to use and, above all, verifying that the databases accessed allow unrestricted reuse of the data.

from Software Development – My Blog https://ift.tt/qmp1KLS
via IFTTT