In spite of all of these factors which would appear to support its innocence, it does threaten the economic value of the original database. Under proposed regimes, the database maker might be able to sue and win. In a court challenge, a judge could rule that the statistician was in violation of law for damaging the economic rights of the database owner. This example was constructed for general public understanding and for its statistical character. The danger it represents, however, potential restriction or chilling of scientifically based analysis and publication, threatens the work of scientists and engineers more generally.
Science builds on the seminal work of earlier authors.
If owners of scientific databases were to have exclusive rights to analyze and publish information derivable from their databases, scientific progress would be greatly restricted. If the owners of databases of structural materials properties were to have the exclusive rights to apply those properties to the analysis and design of structures, engineering innovation would be seriously hindered. In science and engineering, when database owners wish to protect their analytic rights, they delay publication of the raw data until they can publish their own analyses. Once the data have been released, anyone is free to perform competing or alternative analyses of the same data. This practice is essential to science and to public input into policy analysis and decision making.