What
would be the impact of allowing companies to own copyrights on
databases? Experts in the legal community in concert with a number of
high-tech industry watchdogs say the shock to the Internet, ISPs, and
others could be seismic. But such legislation is making its way through
the U.S. Congress. The controversial Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act
has already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee, and the
House Commerce Committee is slated to evaluate it late this week.
ADVERTISEMENT When PC Magazine last reported
on the proposed legislation, the ACLU, numerous libraries, and
NetCoalition, a group that describes itself as "the public policy voice
for some of the world's most innovative Internet companies," were in
vigorous opposition. In January, top law professors from around the
U.S., including Stanford's Lawrence Lessig and the University of
California at Berkeley's Pamela Samuelson, joined NetCoalition in
opposition.
"HR 3261 would inevitably chill communication, and the First
Amendment concerns raised by the bill have not been effectively
addressed by its advocates," says a letter from the law professors to
House judiciary chairman James Sensenbrenner (R–WI). "It would be a
tragic error to ignore the needs and wishes of the innovators who will
build the next generation of valuable information-based products while
providing unneeded and unjustified new protections to the companies
that dominate the field today."
What's all the hubbub about? In 1991, the Supreme Court ruled that
copyrights applied to "creative works" and not to mere collections of
facts such as those compiled in a database. The essence of the Supreme
Court's ruling was that you cannot copyright a fact, such as a person's
address, a stock quote, or many of the examples of fact-based,
real-time information delivered through search engines and
informational sites on the Web.
The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act
would allow databases of facts to be copyrighted, and give subpoena
rights to owners of databases, conferring powers similar to those being
employed by the music industry as it pursues online traders of
copyrighted songs. The stated goal of the proposed legislation is to
prevent the misappropriation of information stored in databases, and it
was originally set in motion by several companies that own extensive
databases, including Reed-Elsevier, owner of the LexisNexis database.
Among other things, LexisNexis contains information on all court cases
in the United States, data that would become copyrightable under the
legislation.
H.R. 3261 defines a database as "a collection of a large number of
discrete items of information produced for the purpose of bringing such
discrete items of information together in one place or through one
source so that persons may access them." Under that definition, a Web
page containing individuals' phone numbers could be construed to be a
database.
"The support for NetCoalition's position from [leading law
professors] shows the mounting opposition to any database legislation
at this time," says Markham Erickson, director of federal policy for
NetCoalition, in an advisory. "H.R. 3261 is a fundamentally flawed
piece of legislation that seems to be an answer in search of a problem."
The House Commerce Committee will likely evaluate the bill on Thursday of this week. PC Magazine will follow up on the story.