Copyright and Databases

In some jurisdictions, most notably Europe, databases are protected as copyright works in accordance with the EC Database Directive, 96/9/EC. In addition to protection under copyright laws, a sui generis right “to prevent extraction and/or reutilisation of the whole or a substantial part” of the contents of a database was established under the European Database Directive in 1996.

The creation and implementation of a database right, separately from the copyright regime, mean that data per se may now be protected if they satisfy the criteria set out under the Directive. This may have implications for public research institutions accessing databases from Europe. For an interesting commentary on the implications of the Directive, see:
http://www.ivir.nl/publications/hugenholtz/EIPR_2005_3_databaseright.pdf.