13.07.2015 Views

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

that were made after the initial term expires may be impractical.Either the database developer would have to provide notice, whichwould create unnecessary bulk and complexity within thedatabase, or the user would incur the burden <strong>of</strong> identifying whichentries were protected and which were not.The very difficulty in developing a workable option regardingthe term <strong>of</strong> a property right in data suggests that a liabilityscheme may be preferable.III. THE EUROPEAN DIRECTIVEA. Impetus for the EU DirectiveThe dilemma for Europe is that the United States currentlydominates the world database industry.112 While in 1990European database developers produced almost half the worldtotal <strong>of</strong> databases, they accounted for only one-quarter <strong>of</strong> the totalrevenue.113 The explanation for the discrepancy is that non-pr<strong>of</strong>itproducers (i.e., governments) produced the majority (54%) <strong>of</strong>European databases, whereas the private sector produced themajority <strong>of</strong> databases in the United States.114 With one exception,Europe is nearly completely dependent on foreign commercialdatabases.115 The exception is Reuters, a U.K. corporation, whichis the world’s largest supplier <strong>of</strong> real-time financialinformation.116 Given this state <strong>of</strong> affairs, it is initially surprisingthat the EU would be the first to implement highly protectionistdatabase legislation. There are however basically two underlyingreasons—one technological and one linguistic.1. Development <strong>of</strong> Computer Related TechnologyAs the market for printed databases deteriorates, the112. Mortimer B. Zuckerman, The Times <strong>of</strong> Our Lives, U.S. News & World Rep.,Dec. 27, 1999, at 68 (stating that <strong>of</strong> the “48 information technology companies thatMorgan Stanley Dean Witter believes will enjoy a competitive advantage over the nextnumber <strong>of</strong> years, 31 are American. Only six are European.”).113. See Charles von Simson, <strong>No</strong>te, Feist or Famine-American Database Copyrightas an Economic Model for the European Union, 20 Brook. J. Int’l L. 729, 731 (1995).114. Id.115. See Information Market Observatory, European Information Trends, § 1, athttp://158.169.50.95:10080/imo/en/trend96/trend96-toc.html (last visited Dec. 11, 2001).Iceland imports 93.3% <strong>of</strong> data, Austria imports 86.2%, and Luxembourg imports 88.0%.Id.116. Id. § 3.5.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!