[drn-discuss] database rights

Mon Mar 7 04:19:22 PST 2005

Hi everyone on this new list.

I've been investigating database rights recently. It's a fairly murky
area: the recent ruling in the BRB vs William Hill case seems to have left
everyone uncertain of where they stand. While the ruling was that William
Hill's re-use was not 'substantial', there was also a ruling that in the
case of a dynamic database (ie one that is frequently updated), the
protection for the entire set of data is renewed each time, effectively
affording the database perpetual protection.

What I've found so far is at

http://www.okfn.org/drn/node/42

Comments would be very welcome (you can post them on DRN), in particular
I'm keen to know what research there has been into the economic case for
and effect of database rights. I can find precious little on the net.

Pete.