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Facts Are Stubborn Things, but Should the Law Protect Them? The Non-Regime for Database Protection
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Facts Are Stubborn Things, but Should the Law Protect Them?
The Non-Regime for Database Protection
Gerald M. DiGiusto
Bowdoin College
## email not listed ##
Abstract: In this paper, I discuss the international regulation of databases. Compilations of data have become the subject of a contentious intellectual property debate between the EU and U.S. over the past decade, particularly with the emergence of on-line technologies for the collection, dissemination, organization, and use of data. Although both sides initially held convergent views on the international regulation of database rights, to the point of jointly proposing an international treaty in 1996, their approaches have since diverged dramatically, generating an uncertain legal environment for database producers, users, and regulators. Given the transnational nature of the market for many types of databases and the extensive international regime for copyright and other intellectual property rights, database regulation should be an easy case for institutionalist theories. There are many ex ante reasons to believe that the EU and U.S. would cooperate to build a regime for databases, yet no international regulatory regime has thus far been established. Database protection therefore constitutes an international non-regime. After defining databases and describing the market for them, I review the status quo for intellectual property regulation on this issue in Europe, the U.S., and internationally. In the final section of the chapter, I offer competing explanations of the divergent outcomes based on my theory of private sector preferences and the statist-realist alternative.
Paper prepared for presentation at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, September 1-4, 2005.
Comments are welcome and greatly appreciated. Please do not cite or disseminate without the author’s express permission.
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| | Authors: DiGiusto, Gerald. |
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Facts Are Stubborn Things, but Should the Law Protect Them?
The Non-Regime for Database Protection
Gerald M. DiGiusto
Bowdoin College
## email not listed ##
Abstract: In this paper, I discuss the international regulation of databases. Compilations of data
have become the subject of a contentious intellectual property debate between the EU and U.S.
over the past decade, particularly with the emergence of on-line technologies for the collection,
dissemination, organization, and use of data. Although both sides initially held convergent views
on the international regulation of database rights, to the point of jointly proposing an
international treaty in 1996, their approaches have since diverged dramatically, generating an
uncertain legal environment for database producers, users, and regulators. Given the
transnational nature of the market for many types of databases and the extensive international
regime for copyright and other intellectual property rights, database regulation should be an easy
case for institutionalist theories. There are many ex ante reasons to believe that the EU and U.S.
would cooperate to build a regime for databases, yet no international regulatory regime has thus
far been established. Database protection therefore constitutes an international non-regime.
After defining databases and describing the market for them, I review the status quo for
intellectual property regulation on this issue in Europe, the U.S., and internationally. In the final
section of the chapter, I offer competing explanations of the divergent outcomes based on my
theory of private sector preferences and the statist-realist alternative.
Paper prepared for presentation at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science
Association, Washington, DC, September 1-4, 2005.
Comments are welcome and greatly appreciated. Please do not cite or disseminate without the
author’s express permission.
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