system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Who owns the data if an institute paid to have it digitized?

I have a friend who has systematically collected data on something happening where he lives. He's done it as a hobby, so no one paid him to do this. 

A local research institute wanted to use these data, but it was all written down. They have gotten hold of the original notebooks (but my friend has several copies and back-ups, and thinks the originals aren't readable anymore due to age) and paid someone to put it all in an excel file. My friend has this file as well. 

The file is in a format that will need several days of work to get it all in a format that can be used for statistical analyses. 

My question is; who owns the rights to use this file? Can my friend use it however he sees fit or does he have to ask the research institute for permission to use the file? They have not done anything with the data, except pay someone to put into excel.
gpt
No one can answer this for your friend since laws vary by countries and it seems parts of the story are missing, so we don't have the full picture or details. 

Like how did they even get his data? Did your friend gave it to them after they asked? Were the documents "open source" in a library? 

 Was he affiliated with the research institute in any ways? Was he collecting data as a volunteer for the research institute (which is common in large environmental field studies sometimes)?

If not, how did they even found out your friend was collecting data in the first place? Is it because your friend reached out to them? If not, Where did they found the originals? 

If he gave them the data, did he sign anything or went into a verbal agreement? What did they say they were going to do with the data?

If they are paying to get the data processed, there must have been a clear understanding that they could use this data. Did they bought the rights from your friend? Or is it because your friend's data is open sourced or he collected data freely for them?
 
So as you can see, the answers are very situation specific and too much details are missing to even say if your friend has rights anymore (or even if he ever had any rights) over the data he collected/handed off. Your friend should talk to the research institute to clear things up instead and if he is not satisfied with their answer, then he might need to lawyer up if he wants to use the data.