Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

United States ought to adopt in light of the challenge posed by theEU Directive.Accordingly, Part I of this Article will examine how theUnited States law of copyrights and unfair competition, as well asthe emerging law of electronic contracts, currently protectscompilations of data, and what additional legislative protection isbeing proposed. Part II will examine how the changing face of thedatabase industry in the new digital age has enhanced both thevalue and the vulnerability of investments in electroniccompilations of data, thus precipitating the current spate oflegislative proposals for sui generis database protection. Part IIIwill examine the particular conditions and motivations that led tothe promulgation of the EU Database Directive, and describe thesui generis protection mandated therein. Finally, Part IV willcompare the two most recent United States legislative proposals,both with each other and with the EU Database Directive,concluding with some thoughts about what the United Statesgovernment should do in light of the dilemma it faces inresponding to the challenge posed by the EU Database Directive.I. PROTECTION OF COMPILATIONS OF DATA: CURRENT U.S. LAW ANDPROPOSED LEGISLATIONIn the United States, calls for sui generis database protectionbegan to mount in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s1991 ruling in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone ServiceCo.,18 which held that white pages of a telephone directory werenot sufficiently original and creative to warrant copyrightprotection.19 In Feist, the Court reiterated its long-standinginsistence “that the fact/expression dichotomy limits severely thescope of [copyright] protection in fact-based works.”20 Specifically,it held that:Facts, whether alone or as part of a compilation, are notoriginal and therefore may not be copyrighted. A factualcompilation is eligible for copyright if it features anoriginal selection or arrangement of facts, but thecopyright is limited to the particular selection or18. 499 U.S. 340 (1991).19. Id. at 364.20. Id. at 350.