Document Type
Article
Abstract
A factual compilation can be protected by copyright law if the selection, coordination, or arrangement of data constitutes an original work of authorship. The facts themselves are not copyrightable. If the factual compilation qualified for copyright protection, the protection would extend only to the selection, coordination, or arrangement that made the compilation original. Protection would not extend to the facts contained in the factual compilation. As a result, the facts in a factual compilation may be freely copied. With the computer revolution, many factual compilations are taking the form of computerized databases. With the ease of copying electronic information, “free riders” may take a first database creator’s database, copy the uncopyrightable elements, and make a second competing database without incurring the cost of producing it.
This article analyzes the current copyright protection available for factual compilations in the database context. The focus is on databases containing uncopyrightable factual material. In other words, an assumption of this paper is that the data in a database is not copyrightable. Those databases that contain copyrighted materials, e.g., articles from newspapers, magazines, etc., will not need to reach the issues examined in a factual compilation case because the elements of the database will be copyrighted.
This article discusses the basic structure and operation of a database. Characteristics specific to databases are considered when analyzing the selection and arrangement of data in a database, and the selection and arrangement standard is applied to a hypothetical database.
Finally, current sui generis legislation being considered in the U.S. and international initiatives that focus on database protection are reviewed. Several shortcomings of H.R. 3531 (the bill introduced last year in congress but not passed) are pointed out, and the substance of several new provisions is suggested.
Recommended Citation
Wesley L. Austin,
A Thoughtful and Practical Analysis of Database Protection under Copyright Law, and a Critique of Sui Generis Protection,
3 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(1997).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol3/iss1/4