We increasingly see software, even expensive, being offered for free. Providers are after free data from their customers. There is a smart strategy behind this: the data can be used and sold to various candidates. FHI organization will organize a special workshop on this subject. Here is a sneak peek of the veil. Data can tell a lot about use, locations, conditions, wear and tear, preferences, popular places, behavior and so on. Well-known examples: navigation software monitors the location at a moment's notice.
A derivative of this provides the speed and therefore current traffic jam information. When this is accumulated per location and day, forward planning becomes possible. Or a wheelchair with a GPS sensor simultaneously provides information for battery suppliers and navigation software suppliers. The latter have difficulty mapping walkable routes and buildings that are accessible by wheelchair. Many companies, including in the industrial sector, with ideas in this direction have difficulty with implementation. In a legal sense, quite a few things have to be arranged. That quickly brings us to questions such as: who owns the software and how do I protect it, who owns the data and how do I sell it or even scarier: Big Data! Below is a brief explanation of software and data.
Software
We used to mean a program, usually on a floppy disk or something. You physically put it into the computer. If the floppy was broken, you used the backup. Those were wonderful times. Nowadays, software comes in many flavors. It remains a row of computer instructions, but it runs, for example, on a virtual server or in an unknown location in the cloud. The software also uses third-party software that is not visible to the user. You can run the software there yourself, rent it or purchase it as a service. Soon terms such as ASP, SaaS, LaaS, PaaS and the like roll across the table or screen.
There is more than a floppy disk between the user and the software. There is a whole army of service providers among them. The connection runs over many disks and the data can be everywhere and nowhere. It sounds easy: the customer just wants it to work. But software never works as it should and the number of links in the chain is getting longer, and so is the chance of unexpected events. The new workshop will make it clear how the different types of software use work, what their advantages and disadvantages are, which contracts are needed and, above all, what can be arranged.
Dates
Data, a lot of bits, information: a bit that bytes you. The supplier of every electric car on the road probably knows exactly where it is located. Who owns that data? And if that supplier also has the user's name, is that an invasion of his privacy? The same applies to the use of, for example, medical devices, apps, sensors in machines and devices, etc. When purchasing an electric car, the buyer agrees that location information may be used by the supplier, for his good but also for that of the supplier. The new workshop will focus on the strategy behind data collection, on big data, on implications regarding the Personal Data Protection Act and, above all, on how to make good agreements about software and the data that is collected and possibly sold again.
Key lock
Legally arranging the agreements about software and data is much more than pulling out a standard license contract. First of all, it is important that agreement must be reached with the customer on a large number of topics and only then that this is put down correctly in writing. This requires close cooperation between the supplier, the customer and a legal specialist at an early stage. The new workshop already offers the first ingredients to make this process run smoothly. See also: Report 3, 2016
ING. FRANK MEIJERS MBA Legal expert lawyer / partner at Flex advocaten, partner of FHI
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