[Podcast] Copyright protection of information and data on natural resources and the environment – Part 2: Policy recommendations for Vietnam

Keywords: data, circular economy, copyright, information, resources and environment

In order to build and to improve the law on data in general and information and data on natural resources and the environment in particular, in Part 2 of the article, the author would like to propose some interesting policies for Vietnam.

Policies on copyright protection for information and data on natural resources and the environment in Vietnam

Facing the risks of disputes over intellectual property rights that may occur during the use of information and data on natural resources and the environment, the Government has issued Decree No. 73/2017/ND-CP on collecting information and data on natural resources and the environment regarding managing, exploiting and using information and data on natural resources and the environment. This is the first legal basis for copyright protection of natural resources and environmental data. Accordingly, natural resource and environmental data are subject to copyright protection and rights related to copyright. This regulation is consistent with the content of the Intellectual Property Law in protecting copyright for data collection. In particular, the state is the owner of copyright and property rights to information and data on natural resources and the environment collected and created with state budget sources or sources from the state budget, except the case of other agreement. Organizations and individuals will have copyright protection for information and data on natural resources and the environment collected and created with funding from organizations and individuals in accordance with the law on property ownership.

Depending on the level of information security, the resource and the environment database will be accessed and exploited. In case the data has been published as a list of information, citizens can access information from state agencies. Whether the data is a state secret or the access is likely to harm national interests or others, citizens will not be able to access the information. Whether the data has not been published and is not a state secret, the use of information and data must have the consent of the copyright owner of the data. Concurrently, organizations and individuals are not allowed to transfer use rights to information and data without the written consent of the copyright owner or owner of the information and data.

However, when exploiting and using information and data through information pages or electronic portals, these current regulations require organizations and individuals to register and to be granted the right to access and to exploit information, data from agencies providing information, data is too rigid and inflexible.

In accordance with the Law on Access to Information 2016, all citizens are equal and not discriminated against in exercising the right to access information, and the information accessed must ensure accuracy and completeness from the provider. Therefore, to balance the respect and the protection of the rights of the author or owner as well as the rights and the interests of accessing information, resource and environmental data of the community, citizens are allowed to access with the conditions in the case that the author or owner agrees in the form of: (1) a ballot, (2) a written agreement or (3) a contract between an information management unit, data and parties exploiting and using information and data

The contract between the information and data management unit and the party exploiting and using information and data is one of three forms and procedures in exploiting and using information and data. Regarding the form of contract, the exploitation and the use of information and data in the form of contract shall comply with the provisions of the Civil Code between the database management agency and the organization or individual in need of exploiting and using information and data. An increasingly popular form of contract is electronic contracts. Developing electronic contracts is one of the national digital economy goals. Therefore, policies on contract forms for exploiting and using information and data need to be considered and updated.

The participation of organizations and individuals receives the encouragement from state agencies. Regarding research investment activities, the state encourages the initiative of organizations and individuals to invest in acquiring, creating, providing and sharing information and data on natural resources and the environment. Regarding sharing activities, the state encourages organizations and individuals to provide and to donate information and data on natural resources and the environment to state agencies, contributing to protecting national sovereignty and serving common interests of the society. In general, current policies do not have appropriate recognition or rewards, causing organizations and individuals to lack motivation to participate in building and sharing information and data on natural resources and the environment.

Information and environmental monitoring data listed as air and water monitoring data, hydrometeorological monitoring data, ozone monitoring data and so on are very important for with timely response and handling in resource management, environmental protection and natural disaster prevention. However, the policy only mentions sharing information and data on natural resource and environmental monitoring in a timely manner to functional agencies and organizations to serve people’ livelihood, economic, social and security development as well as national defense. This means that individuals and organizations wishing to exploit research and forecasting activities will have difficulty accessing it. In addition, some other resource and environmental information and data do not absolutely need to be protected too strictly.

For violations, organizations and individuals that violate copyright on information and data on natural resources and the environment will be subject to administrative sanctions, accompanied by a decision to compensate the author or the owner for damages. If there are elements constituting a crime, the individual who infringes copyright will be prosecuted for criminal liability in accordance with the provisions of criminal law.

Proposed solutions for Vietnam

On the foundation of the principle of automatic and independent protection of the Berne Convention, copyright arises from the moment the work is fixed in a certain material form without depending on any formality or procedure regardless of whether published or unpublished, registered or unregistered. Therefore, copyright protection for natural resource and environmental information and data is often not (or rarely) registered, updated and publicly announced on media, information sites, portals. national or local electronic information. This indirectly causes difficulties in searching and using. To build and to improve the law on data in general and information, resource and environmental data in particular, the author proposes the followings:

Firstly, copyright protection for information, resource and environmental data can create certain barriers in accessing data for individuals and organizations in need. Regulations on natural resources and environmental data in Decree No. 73/2017/ND-CP are too broad in terms of semantics while the data that is allowed to be shared and used is not clear. For example, many points and items specified in Article 4 do not necessarily need to be protected, listed as: information and data on land, information and data on water resources, information and data on climate change. In order for the value of copyright protection to be promoted without hindering freedom of access to information, the related information should be divided into specific groups, which list data items in detail regarding the protection of natural resources and environment is established. The requirement to register and to grant permission to access and to exploit information and data through information pages or electronic portals should be canceled.

In order to increase transparency in the protection of natural resources and environmental data, management agencies need to clarify which data is shared and used publicly, which data is shared but used with permission, and which data are not shared. Therefore, users can proactively access shared data sources appropriately and effectively while still ensuring respect for copyright.

Secondly, accessing, sharing and exploiting information and data on natural resources and the environment is an essential need of individuals and organizations in managing and operating production according to the circular economy process. Typically, in Ho Chi Minh City, a resource and environmental data sharing platform associated with technology solutions has been deployed based on the co-operation model of the Open Geospatial Consortium. This is one of the commonly applied models for spatial data infrastructure in many countries and territories around the world.

In addition, resource and environmental data can support the development of enterprises’ circular business models (collectively referred to under the recently unofficial term circular data) or revenue collection applications. Collect information and data to serve the environmental inspection and monitoring of state organizations. At that time, organizations, individuals, and businesses will operate effectively with a green production orientation, contributing to increased profits and the overall contributions to the development of the circular economy. In certain cases, state agencies should encourage authors and owners of natural resources and environmental data to proactively share to enhance community benefits through policies of both material and physical rewards with the purpose of recognizing and honoring the contributions of individuals and organizations to the country’s socio-economic development.

Thirdly, copyright protection of information, resource and environmental data has an impact on digital economic development, especially intellectual property digital data platforms. With the strong rise of technology, the digital transformation process poses numerous challenges for organizations and individuals in collecting, managing and using data in the most appropriate and optimal way. One of the necessary additions is the recognition of electronic contracts in the exploitation and the use of information and data on natural resources and the environment. Specifically, adding the phrase ‘electronic contract’ to Article 19 of Decree No. 73/2017/ND-CP as follows: “The exploitation and the use of information and data in the form of contracts is carried out in accordance with regulations provisions of the Civil Code and the law on electronic transactions between database management agencies and organizations and individuals who need to exploit and to use information and data”.

Digitalization in natural resources and environmental management is our country’s direction in digitally transforming the Natural Resources and Environment sector. To achieve the goal of building a natural resources and environmental database and improving the digital technology platform is extremely necessary to integrate natural resources and environmental data to promote the completion of the national general database. One of the methods is the national electronic data portal, which gathers all data in all industries and fields in the digital environment.

In accordance with the Vietnam’s current regulations and policies on copyright protection of natural resource and environmental information and data, this study has clarified the definition of natural resource and environmental data as well as evaluated the fundamental assessment of limitations in legal regulations on information and data on natural resources and environment in Decree No. 73/2017/ND-CP besides making recommendations to remove barriers in the current protection policies.

Information and data on the natural resources and the environment play an important role in national economic development and the direction of building a circular economy. Copyright protection for natural resource and environmental data is necessary to ensure adequate spiritual and material benefits for parties who make efforts in collecting and creating intellectual information. natural resources and environmental data; concurrently, encouraging the creative development of information products, resource and environmental data in the future. However, protection needs to be carefully considered to avoid creating barriers to the access of individuals and businesses in free trade activities or causing restrictions in the process of organizing the country which exploits it for national benefit

Objectively speaking, in Vietnam, there has been no research on copyright of information, resource and environmental data. This study will be the starting point for research and evaluation of copyright in particular and intellectual property rights in general regarding information, resource and environmental data. More broadly suggested is the trend towards a property rights approach to resource and environmental data.

Please refer to the full research titled Copyright protection of natural resource and environmental information and data HERE.

Author: Nguyễn Hoàng Nam, School of Economics, Laws and Government, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH).

This is an article in the series of articles spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the “Research Contribution For All – Nghiên Cứu Vì Cộng Đồng” message, UEH cordially invites dear readers to look forward to the upcoming UEH Research Insights No. #114.