EU Database Directive
| European Union directive | |
| Title | Directive on the legal protection of databases |
|---|---|
| Made by | European Parliament & Council |
| Made under | Arts. 47(2), 55 & 95 |
| Journal reference | L77, 1996-03-27, pp. 20–28 |
| History | |
| Date made | 11 March 1996 |
| Came into force | 27 March 1996 |
| Implementation date | 1 January 1998 |
| Preparative texts | |
| Commission proposal | C156, 1992-06-23, p. 4 C308, 1993-11-15, p. 1 |
| EESC opinion | C19, 1993-01-25, p. 3 |
| EP opinion | C194, 1993-07-19, p. 144 |
| Current legislation | |
The Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases is a directive of the European Union in the field of copyright law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. It harmonizes the treatment of databases under copyright law and the sui generis right for the creators of databases which do not qualify for copyright.
Article 1(2) defines a database as "a collection of independent works, data or other materials arranged in a systematic or methodical way and individually accessible by electronic or other means". Non-electronic databases are also covered (para. 14 of the preamble). Any computer program used to create the database is not included (para. 23 of the preamble). Copyright protection of software is governed by Directive 91/250/EEC.
Under Article 3, databases which, "by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, constitute the author's own intellectual creation" are protected by copyright as collections: no other criterion may be used by Member States. This may be a relaxation of the criterion for protection of collections in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which covers collections "of literary and artistic works" and requires creativity in the "selection and arrangement" of the contents: in practice the difference is likely to be slight. Any copyright in the database is separate from and without prejudice to the copyright in the entries.
The acts restricted by copyright are similar to those for other types of work (Art. 5):
This shall not prevent the lawful use of the database by a lawful user [Art. 6(1)]: Member States may provide for any or all of the following limitations [Art. 6(2)], as well as applying any traditional limitations to copyright:
Copyright protection usually lasts for seventy years after the death of the last publicly identified author. Anonymous or pseudonymous works gain protection for the later of 70 years after the work is lawfully made available to the public or 70 years from creation. If national legislation makes particular provision for collective works or for a legal person (i.e. a body corporate) to be a rights holder the term of protection of calculated in the same way as for anonymous or pseudonymous works, with the exception that if any natural persons who created the work are given credit in versions made available to the public, the term of protection is calculated according to the lives of those authors. Art. 1, Directive 93/98/EEC).
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