Commentary: LinkedIn-Hiq Labs Case Will Have Implications on Data | Fortune

"The case hinges on questions of who owns a piece of data and the circumstances under which the information can be viewed as residing in the public domain, accessible by all and sundry. The appeals court judges may rule that LinkedIn owns exclusive rights to the data, which would not have been compiled without the entrepreneurial talents of LinkedIn’s founders. Conversely, the judges may conclude that since LinkedIn users set their profiles to “public,” placing them in full view of search engines and general web surfers, they are giving companies like hiQ free rein to view and use the data as they see fit...."