[LEAPSECS] Olsen database taken offline

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Ian Batten said:

>> The merits of the case seem weak to me, since database do not have copyright protection.  Facts cannot be copyrighted any more than a telephone book.  

> 

> It's not as simple as that in EU law, and it appears not to be in US law.  See http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/database.html --- the test for information being copyrightable is high, but not unattainable.


That page is a bit behind. There was a cluster of ECJ cases about the sui
generis right. For a start, the right only applies where there is a
substantial effort in creating the *database*; the effort involved in
creating the *data* doesn't count. And what's protected is the collection
or a substantive part of it, not individual items of data.

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