‘Data autonomous cars is subject to copyright’

A European Parliament legal committee has voted against an amendment seeking to exempt data generated by autonomous vehicles from copyright law. The Committee therefore seems to be of the opinion that copyright can rest on those data streams.

The Swedish MEP Max Andersson wanted with an amendment to prevent data from autonomous transport from falling under copyright rules, because this data is generated automatically and is not creative in nature. “Therefore, copyright protection does not apply,” the text read.

However, members of the centre-right EPP called for a vote not to include the amendment, and it was removed. Being on Twitter from Andersson displeasure: “It looks like in the world of the EPP, the data from an autonomous car is someone’s creative work, possibly the car manufacturer, that can be bought and sold and deserves the special protection that we give artists.” It concerned an amendment to a provisional text with the opinion of the Legal Committee.

BoingBoing makes a comparison with John Deere tractors, which in the past have been in the news negatively for containing software covered by the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. As a result, farmers were unable to repair their tractors because they could not access diagnostic data. The agricultural implements also collected data about the farmers’ land, after which the data came into the possession of John Deere. According to BoingBoing, the telemetry data from autonomous cars must also be available to evaluate safety, improve performance and ensure that they work as the manufacturer claims.