The legal protection of databases: current situation of the international harmonisation process

Abstract

The requisite of creativity set down by copyright laws does not fit well into the context of digital databases. The risk of being unprotected increases in the case of factual compilations, as simple facts or data are not copyrightable, meaning that their contents can easily be copied and/or used by others without infringing copyright. After more than a decade of intense debate about the need to give or not give additional protection to nonoriginal databases, and about the most appropriate model to follow, international consensus is still far away. This paper analyses the situation at the present point of the long, heated process of harmonising the legal protection of databases. The European directive is first examined, as well as attempts to extrapolate it to other countries. Then the paper looks at some proposals from the USA, and finally at the treaties and projects of an international nature.

Datasets, a Shift in the Currency of Scholarly Communication: Implications for Library Collections and Acquisitions

“…4,5,6 Similar attempts have been made in the United States to apply blanket protections on collections of data. Currently in the United States, factual data are not copyrightable.…”

The paradoxes of open data and how to get rid of it? Analysing the interplay between open data and sui-generis rights on databases

“…Precisely determining the extent to which a database is protected under copyright or other laws can therefore be a difficult task, especially when the database producers or contributors are located in different countries. 65 To begin with, the sui-generis database right exclusively applies to database producers located in the EU. Indeed, under European law, the structure of original databases is protected under the copyright regime, while the content of both original and non-original databases is protected under the sui-generis rights to the extent that a substantial investment has been undertaken for the production thereof.…”