Database Right copyrighting ideas.

This week's Out-law.com from Masons (see http://www.out-law.com) features a 
story on the advice from advocate-general Stix-Hackl to the ECJ on the 
WIlliam Hill/British Board of Horseracing database case. IMHO, Stix-Hackl is 
advising that production of a substantial database involving significant 
effort then gives the database owner the right to sue anyone using any 
substantial portion of that information without a license, even where the 
other party compiles their own database out of published information from a 
variety of sources (which may include those with licenses to publish the 
data).

This is a worrying interpretation fot he database right, which was supposed 
to protect the investment in compiling a database by preventing wholesale 
copying. The most worrying parts of Stix-Hackl's advice is:

(quote from Out-law.com's piece)
Advocate-General Stix-Hackl takes the view, first, that the term database 
should be interpreted widely for the purposes of the Database Directive.
...
Unlike extraction, however, re-utilisation does not require that the 
information be obtained from the database itself; rather, the prohibition on 
reutilisation is also applicable if the data are taken from an independent 
source, such as a print medium or the internet.


-- 
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