BMJ - PKI and signinng slight confusion

[ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk]

Brian Gladman wrote:


> 
> 
> > At 10:54 pm +0100 12/9/00, Adrian Midgley wrote:
> > >...I don't buy the paper I use.  It arrives in boxes form the HA
> > ...
> > It doesn't seem obvious to me that whoever owns a sheet of paper
> > necessarily owns whatever gets written on it, but separate ownership
> > of a sheet of paper and something that is written on it is also an
> > interesting concept. I hope some legally trained folk will help us
> > out here...
> 
> I agree.  It is surely clear from the law suits going on about music
> distribution that intellectual rights exist at a more abstract level than
> the physical media involved.
> 
> It is also interesting to see a possible tussle developing between medical
> professionals and their clients on which group might 'own' medical records
> and medical information.  Its not obvious to me that this is easy to resolve
> unless the two groups have come to an agreement covering the basis on which
> the service in question is being provided.
> 
> However, it is probably more important to worry about management and control
> rather than ownership per se.
> 
>     Brian

I have often found it helpful to think of the 'owner' of an item of data 
as being the person who can cause its value to alter.  Data items 
come in (at least) two flavours;  those which follow the value of 
something in the real world, and those which define the value of 
something in the real worls.

When we think of a Patient's records, all sorts of things in there are 
clearly capable of being altered by the Patient him/herself (I have in 
mind things like home address, dietary habits, and whether or not 
the Patient actually takes any medication that is prescribed);  
these are examples of my first group, the data items which follow 
the real world.  Some things are altered by the Medical Practitioner 
(what medication or treatment is prescribed/recommended);  these 
are examples of my second group, where the real world 
supposedly behaves as the Practitioner decides.

However, some items are just handed to us on a plate (blood 
pressure, presence of a specific infectious agent ) and we simply 
have to take it as being controlled by neither the Patient nor the 
Practitioner.

Like anyhting else in this area, the approach breaks down if you 
push it too hard, but it can be a helpful way of looking at some 
issues.

Mike Wells