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BULLETIN NEWS
EC Law: Copyrights, data protection
NDatabases Employers should advise their employees to be vigilant in their use of databases following new regulations*, implementing the EC Database Directive (No 96/9/EC), which came into force on 1 January These regulations extend copyright protection (which lasts 70 years) under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to databases, where the selection or arrangement of the contents constitutes the author's own intellectual creation.
The regs also create a "database right", prohibiting the unauthorised extraction and reuse of all or a substantial part of a database in which there has been a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting its contents. Protection lasts for 15 years from the end of the calendar year in which the database was completed (or from 1 January 1998 if it was completed after 31 December 1982).
As with copyright, where creations are made in the course of employment, all rights lie with the employer.
* The Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 (511997 No 3032), available from The Stationery Office, priced Tags