The public perspective in regulating big data. Big Data as a New Commons

The paper aims at identifying the legal nature of big data and the different views con cerning data “ownership”. In particular, in its first part, after having clarified that currently no specific law grants ownership to big data as such, the work points out that within the EU legal system, three different legal regimes concerning the “ownership” of data can be identified: private, for personal data; public, for public data; and no-one “ownership”, for non-personal data. The paper then focuses on the main views concerning big data. In its second part, the work puts other regulatory and interpretative options forward, and specifically the one that may be defined as the “public view” of big data. This “public view” is based, inter alia, on the consideration that big amount of data should be de signed to serve mankind. Within such a view, it may be possible to consider big data as a new commons. The paper concludes upholding that big data requires a multilevel regulatory framework, within which competition-related matters should be given due considerations, in order to ensure different needs stemming from both private and public sides