Source: http://copybuzz.com/pl/editorial/eu-database-directive-please-answer-consultation-now/
Timestamp: 2018-02-25 05:21:15
Document Index: 425649019

Matched Legal Cases: ['sui generis', 'sui generis', 'sui generis', 'sui generis', 'sui generis', 'sui generis', 'sui generis']

As well as consistently ignoring independent experts who warn beforehand against extending copyright yet further, governments around the world exacerbate the problem by failing to revisit legislation once passed to see if it provides the claimed benefits. To be fair, there is one notable exception to that statement. In 2005, the European Commission published a detailed evaluation of an earlier copyright law, passed in 1996: the Database Directive. CopyBuzz has already explained the background to this slightly unusual protection, which comes in two forms. These are traditional copyright protection for „original” databases, and something called „sui generis” protection for databases which aren’t original, but require a certain amount of effort in their compilation from other sources.
The European Commission’s evaluation noted: „The ‚sui generis’ right is a Community creation with no precedent in any international convention. No other jurisdiction makes a distinction between ‚original’ and ‚non-original’ databases.” The core question the report sought to answer was whether this new form of copyright had achieved its aim, and had encouraged the EU database industry to create more databases than it would have done without the sui generis protection.
The results were clear. The EU evaluation wrote: „the new instrument has had no proven impact on the production of databases,” and it admitted that there was no evidence that this copyright extension was „necessary for a thriving database industry”. The obvious conclusion would be that the sui generis right should be repealed, since it represented a curtailment of the public’s rights to access and use data freely, but without any demonstrable gain in terms of increased database production.
Not all parts need be answered, so you can pick and choose those that are of most interest or most relevant to you. A key question is in the „Impact on rightholders and users” section, which asks to what extent the sui generis right has been effective, and whether it achieves a good balance between the rights of database companies and of the public. Another question probes the relationship between the costs and the benefits of this right.
The other main section is entitled „Application of the Database Directive and possible needs of adjustment”. The key questions here are numbers 18 and 19, which ask how the Database Directive should be modified. My response for both is as follows: „The sui generis right should be repealed completely. Even though only one EU report was produced – despite a legal requirement for one every three years – it is clear that the sui generis right is unnecessary, and is simply another intellectual monopoly that has been imposed on the public for no benefit.” Once you have saved and submitted your responses, you can print or download them. You can read mine in this PDF file, for what they are worth.