It's not like the weather, that just happens

I was at the Intellect conference on Identity & Information in London last month, where Edgar Whitely from the LSE gave a super presentation on data minimisation that I have blogged about over on Digital Identity. One of the speakers kicked off by pointing out that the US "information industry" is massively bigger than the EU information industry and they talked about this as if it was something to do with the weather, or an accident of geography. But the European information industry is crippled because we chose to make it that way.

Back in 1996, the EU implemented something called the Database Directive. My memory of those days is imperfect, I'm sure. I have it in my mind that one of the drivers was to stop people from copying telephone directories, but it may have been about protecting the candle industry or steam engines or something. Anyway, this basically means that you can't extract something from a database if the database owner claims that this is damaging their investment. So if you think of something clever to do with train timetables -- to pick an obvious example -- then the train operator can stop you from doing it, even if they never thought of the idea and have no intention of doing it. The train times are facts, and you can't copyright facts, so the Directive means you have to licence the train times from the train operator. Fortunately, this is now under investigation, at least in the UK.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is investigating the supply of Real Time Train Information (RTTI) by National Rail Enquiries Service Ltd (NRE)... RTTI is a key input into the provision of live train running information to passengers through media such as train information websites or services accessed over mobile phones... We are conducting this investigation under the Competition Act 1998 (the Act), having been made aware of concerns in this area including from members of the public, and from Members of Parliament on behalf of their constituents.
[From Current cases : Competition issues : Competition & consumer issues : Market regulation : Office of Rail Regulation]

You'd think that train companies would want third parties to make cool applications and make it easier for people to use public transport, but apparently not. Meanwhile, across the pond, between 1996 and 2004, the US Congress considered six bills asking for the same thing. Database operators are not as sexy as pop stars and don't lobby as well as Disney, so their protectionism was rejected. The consequences ought to have been entirely predictable. If we want a vigorous European information industry then we have to stop locking up data. Shorty after typing in the initial draft of this post, I noticed that

The Prime Minister has enlisted Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the internet, to devise a strategy to make a raft of information open to all.[From Downing Street plan to put transport information at passengers' fingertips - Telegraph]

Unfortunately, in the UK, announcing a strategy for something is a substitute for actually doing anything about it. Still, fingers crossed. Supposing that, against the odds, Sir Tim manages to have to some effect, then

It will mean that transport providers, such as train, tube and bus companies, will lose the right to demand a hefty fee from anyone who wishes to publish the information
[From Downing Street plan to put transport information at passengers' fingertips - Telegraph]

Personally, I remain to be convinced that either the government or Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition have anything approaching a technology strategy. The European Commission certainly don't, since they have just passed a new law about cookies. A lawyer writing about it says that

It is so breathtakingly stupid that the normally law-abiding business may be tempted to bend the rules to breaking point.

[From Consent will be required for cookies in Europe | Pinsent Masons LLP]

In a couple of years' time, speakers at conferences will be bemoaning the fact that the European e-commerce industry is falling behind the US e-commerce industry and puzzling about why this is, oblivious to the fact that consumers visiting European sites will simply click away when confronted by the ridiculous consent forms (and how wlll these work on mobile phones?).