But there are no “IP rights” in factual information generated by a sensor. It’s not copyrightable, you can’t patent data, it’s not a trade secret, it’s not a trademark, it’s not even covered by EU database rights or sui generis rights for medical research data. It’s born in the public domain and there’s no rights to assign.
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I accept that and it’s good to have the reminder. And, I still wonder if there’s a provision such as the one I suggested in the EULA.
Cory,
The app abbot’s programmers wrote.
The app’s code is the protected work which they don’t want modified by the github code, per the second paragraph of the law firm’s letter. I think they are arguing that it has some technical control measures, maybe code obfuscation (or android permissions), and that de-compiling it and patching their app circumvents that. See https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2019/11/2019-11-08-abbott.md
They don’t say whether or not there is copyright over the blood data (either the raw sensor data or the human readable version).
While I’m not a legal expert or lawyer, I personally think this app is covered by both fair use for the supposed copyright infringement and that explicit DMCA exemption for getting around any access controls (and I’m unclear what controls they are claiming, other then having compiled the code). I’d be interested to hear what the EFF has to say.
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