Data reuse on the Internet

Here’s an interesting thought from Hongwei Zhu and Stuart E. Madnick:

“If your company has put up an extensive Web site, chances are fairly good that, whether you realize it or not, you have made a database available for others to reuse. You may own the database, but it is difficult for you to own its contents completely after you have made them publicly accessible, unless you find innovative ways of using those contents.”

That’s an excerpt from Zhu and Madnick’s article,  “Finding New Uses for Information,” in the new Summer 2009 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.  Citing examples such as travel site Kayak.com — which draws on data from other travel sites — the authors look at the topic of data reuse on the Internet, from a strategic and legal perspective.