Who holds the rights in a database structure and content?
Database rights were introduced in 1996 (Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases and Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997) exclusively to protect databases. If the directive applies, the owner can prevent unauthorised extraction or reutilisation of all or a substantial part of the contents. The rights last for 15 years and can be renewed. This may pose problems for those wishing to re-use data for research purposes but the ‘fair dealing’ exception (which is restricted to extraction) by a ‘lawful’ user allows illustration for non-commercial teaching or research. Substantial is also not clearly defined. If in doubt about sharing your database please contact our acquisitions team (acquisitions@data-archive.ac.uk) in the first instance.
