Big Data Raises Big Question

The use of big data raises a big question in agriculture: Who owns it?

Attorney Todd Janzen with Janzen Agricultural Law in Indianapolis offered his thoughts in a recent column in Precision Farming Dealer.

He said ownership is a legal principle that must be recognized by courts or a law, and for ag data, we do not yet have that recognition.

Janzen said ownership takes three forms: real property, personal property, and intellectual property, and ag data is a mix of all three.

“Yield data, for example, is information inextricably linked to the land, like real property,” he wrote. “Yield data is also highly portable, like personal property. But it also contains valuable information, like intellectual property. Those characteristics make ag data unique from other forms of property.”

Janzen invited feedback on the subject as farmers move more deeply into big data and the issues around it. S