Legal Protection for the Database: Is there a better way?

Abstract

The business database is a valuable commodity. However without adequate legal protection the economic incentives required to invest in their creation ongoing updating and maintenance will be absent. The underlying objectives of many business databases can only be achieved if they are made accessible to the public; these databases are particularly vulnerable to misuse. Although copyright law provides protection for the original structure and format of a database judicial decisions in this area reveal many inconsistencies. In addition traditional copyright law fails to address the complexity of features found in a modern database. In this article we examine decisions from the European Union the United States and Australia and conclude that traditional copyright protection for the modern database is inappropriate. We analyse the structure of the 21st century business database and explain how copyright could protect specific features of this structure in a more nuanced fashion. As an alternative we consider the use of compulsory licensing as a suitable tool for protecting the economic value of the database.