Database Legal Protection P rotection for databases under copyright law is provided under the concept of a compilation copyright.
Compilation copyrights protect the collection and assembling of data or other materials.
An example of a database that is protected as a compilation would be a database of selected quotations from U.S. Presidents. The individual quotations themselves may or may not be subject to copyright protection. However, the selection of the quotations involves enough original, creative expression that it is protected by copyright. Therefore, a database of quotations will be protected by copyright as a compilation even though some of the quotations are not protected. An example of a protectable grouping of facts would be a database of Internet locations for selected legal articles.