[OSM-legal-talk] Database and its contents

[Francis Davey]

On 23 November 2010 15:22, Grant Slater <openstreetmap at firefishy.com> wrote:
> On 23 November 2010 14:57, Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com> wrote:
>>
>>>No copyright and database-right are not universal the world over,
>>
>> Yes - it's my understanding that the sui generis database right exists only in
>> Europe - is that so?
>>
>
> What difference does it make? It does not effect ODbL and that is what
> we are here to discuss.
>

To answer some of the questions raised by my comment (and not just this one).

The sui generis database right exists only in the EU and the EEA.

Most of the other jurisdictions that I am familiar with (Australia,
US, to some extent New Zealand) do not have specific database rights -
what protection there might be for collections of information will
generally be under copyright (and in most cases this will have a much
higher threshold than database copyright did in the UK and is not
simply based on the amount of effort put into collecting the data).
There are other (non-copyright) principles that may apply, for example
some species of "hot news"/misappropriation protection might apply to
certain database in the US (but almost certainly not OSM).

The sui generis database right is relevant to ODbL because the ODbL
incorporates the database right into its definition section:

[“Database Right” – Means rights resulting from the Chapter III (“sui
generis”) rights in the Database Directive (as amended and as
transposed by member states), which includes the Extraction and
Re-utilisation of the whole or a Substantial part of the Contents, as
well as any similar rights available in the relevant jurisdiction
under Section 10.4.]

So if another country outside the EU (or EEA?) were to implement a
specific non-copyright protection of data, ODbL's "database right"
protection would not apply to it.

All countries with the sui generis database right have harmonised the
threshold for database copyright as I have explained.

-- 
Francis Davey