Database Directive - Copyright

Copyright

Under Article 3, databases which, "by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, constitute the author's own intellectual creation" are protected by copyright as collections: no other criterion may be used by Member States. This may be a relaxation of the criterion for protection of collections in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which covers collections "of literary and artistic works" and requires creativity in the "selection and arrangement" of the contents: in practice the difference is likely to be slight. Any copyright in the database is separate from and without prejudice to the copyright in the entries.

The acts restricted by copyright are similar to those for other types of work (Art. 5):

• temporary or permanent reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in part;
• translation, adaptation, arrangement and any other alteration;
• any form of distribution to the public of the database or of copies thereof, subject to the exhaustion of rights;
• any communication, display or performance to the public;
• any reproduction, distribution, communication, display or performance to the public of a translation, adaptation, etc.

This shall not prevent the lawful use of the database by a lawful user : Member States may provide for any or all of the following limitations, as well as applying any traditional limitations to copyright:

• reproduction for private purposes of a non-electronic database;
• use for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source is indicated and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved;
• use for the purposes of public security of for the purposes of an administrative or judicial procedure.

Copyright protection usually lasts for seventy years after the death of the last publicly-identified author. Anonymous or pseudonymous works gain protection for the later of 70 years after the work is lawfully made available to the public or 70 years from creation. If national legislation makes particular provision for collective works or for a legal person (i.e. a body corporate) to be a rights holder the term of protection of calculated in the same way as for anonymous or pseudonymous works, with the exception that if any natural persons who created the work are given credit in versions made available to the public, the term of protection is calculated according to the lives of those authors. Art. 1, Directive 93/98/EEC).