Information Systems and the Environment (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Intellectual Property Rights in Data
Intellectual Property Rights in Data
Pages 45-56
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From page 45... ...
Current intellectual property paradigms were not designed for an information economy (Reichman and Samuelson, 1997~. Unlike holders of more traditional types of intellectual property, database creators enjoy only limited protection under the federal intellectual property laws, and so have turned to contracts to protect their investments.
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From page 46... ...
Given the particular structure of the database market, granting broad rights in information invites database creators to price according to profit rather than according to cost. These solutions to the problem of database protection may actually discourage knowledge sharing and hinder research and development (Samuelson, 1997~.
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From page 47... ...
For the white pages telephone directory at issue in Feist, there was no way to organize the listings, other than the obvious alphabetical-by-surname method, and still have a directory that would be usable by customers. Because the court grounded its holding not only in the Copyright Act, but also in the Intellectual Property Clause of the Constitution, Feist places significant limits on the ability of database makers to obtain copyright protection.
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From page 48... ...
The database creator must walk a tightrope between preserving secrecy and making the information usable for its customers. The law requires actions that run directly counter to the motivation that caused the database creator to seek legal protection in the first place.
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From page 49... ...
In 1996, the European Commission adopted the Directive on the Legal Protection of Databases, which requires member states to enact legislation granting database creators the "right to prevent extraction and/or reutilization of the whole or of a substantial part, evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively, of the contents" of a database (EC, 19961. To gain this protection, the database creator must establish only that there has been "a substantial investment in either the obtaining, verification, or presentation of the contents." The term of protection is 15 years, but is renewable whenever the database holder makes "rainy substantial change, evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively, to the contents of the database." This proviso makes the term effectively perpetual because a compiler need only add more data in order to renew protection for the entire database.
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From page 50... ...
Also in the fall of 1996, the Clinton administration and the European Union submitted proposals for a database protection treaty to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for consideration at WIPO's December 1996 conference (WIPO, 1996~.
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From page 51... ...
The framework set forth in the Collections of Information Antipiracy Acta very strong legal monopoly, coupled with a low standard to qualify and a likely infinite period of protection is problematic for several reasons. First, the sole basis for the proposed grant is substantial monetary investment by the database creator; no showing of innovation is required.
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From page 52... ...
In 2000, the European Union and the United States reached agreement on a set of "safe harbor" information practices for United States companies and organizations receiving personal data concerning European Union nationals. It is too early to predict whether the safe harbor policy will be effective, or whether the United States will adopt similar measures to protect the privacy of United States
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From page 53... ...
DESIGNING APPROPRIATE LEGAL PROTECTION FOR DATABASES The European database protection scheme and the protections proposed in Congress have in common flaws that are intrinsic to a property-based view of information. A preferable system would be designed expressly to balance the interests of database creators with those of society, rather than relying on market forces to accomplish this balancing.
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From page 54... ...
CONCLUSION As we have shown, current legal protection for databases and proposed property-based regimes for database protection are equally unsatisfactory. Current intellectual property law affords insufficient protection for those who invest time, effort, and money in collecting and compiling data.
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From page 55... ...
1995. Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of Such Data.
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