International Council for Science : Committee on Data for Science and Technology

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C O D A T A

The list of sources that follows is intended to provide background information relating to proposals to modify the international treaty on database property rights. Note that most apply to proposals made in 1996 that may be no longer be applicable. If and when the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) prepares a new draft treaty, it may be considerably different from the documents cited below. When information on that treaty or other legislation is available, we will post references here. A summary of recent developments in database property rights is maintained by the ICSU/CODATA Ad-hoc Group on data and information. Comments or further relevant information is welcome. Please notify ferris@udel.edu

• The text of the proposals

• Web articles

• News articles

• Letters

Basic proposal for the substantive provisions of the Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Databases to be considered by the Diplomatic Conference

prepared by the Chairman of the Committees of Experts on a Possible Protocol to the Berne Convention and on a Possible Instrument for the Protection of the Rights of Performers and Producers of Phonograms, World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva. (This is the text of the WIPO proposal that treats database property rights.)

http://www.loc.gov/copyright/wipo6.html

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/diplconf/6dc_sta.htm

http://www.wipo.org/eng/diplconf/6dc_sta.htm

Collections of Information Antipiracy Act of 1977 (H.R.2652).

(This bill would amend title 17, United States Code, to prevent the misappropriation of collections of information. It has been referred  [October, 1997] to the House Committee on the Judiciary.)

ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/c105/h2652.ih.txt

Database Investment and Intellectual Property Antipiracy act of 1996 (H.R.3531).

(This is the implementing legislation for the treaty that was submitted in 1996 to the 104th US Congress. It is no longer applicable.The bill referenced just above has now been submitted in the U.S. House of Representatives.)

ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/c104/h3531.ih.txt

Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases

(This is an unofficial text of the Directive of the European Union. For the authoritative text of the Directive, reference should be made to the Official Journal of the European Communities of 27/3/96 no L 77 p. 20. Note that the Directive calls for member states to implement enacting legislation no later than 1 January, 1998.)

http://158.169.50.95:10080/legal/en/ipr/database/database.html

Federal Law to Regulate the Conditions for Information and Communications Services (IuKDG) ("Multimedia Law")

(This is a draft of the new German federal law intended to implement the EU Directive.)

        http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ckuner/multimd3.htm

Report on legal protection for Databases

by the U.S., Copyright Office, August, 1977

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/more.html#rpt

Bits of Power: Issues in Global Access to Scientific Data

by The Committee on Issues of Transborder Flow of Scientific Data, US National Committee for CODATA,
National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1997,

http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/reader.cgi?auth=free&label=ul.book.0309056357

(The Bits of Power study also maintains a home page at http://www.nas.edu/cpsma/bits2.htm.)

On the Full and Open Exchange of Scientific Data

by Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data, National Research Council
National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1995,

http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/exch/exch.html

A threat to the integrity of scince

by G. Thyagarjan, Scientific Secretary, COSTED, International Council for Science
The Hindu, Chennai, 11 July 1997, Page 10

http://www.webpage.com/hindu/daily/970711/05/05112524.htm

Sui Generis Database Protection: Has Its Time Come?

by Jonathan Band and Jonathan S. Gowdy, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Washington, D.C.
D-Lib Magazine, June 1997

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june97/06band.html
jband@mofo.com
jgowdy@mofo.com

A Primer On The Proposed WIPO Treaty On Database Extraction Rights That Will Be Considered In December 1996

by James Love,

http://www.essential.org/cpt/ip/cpt-dbcom.html

Government Proposes New Regulation of Sports Statistics and other "facts"

by James Love, Consumer Project on Technology

http://www.essential.org/cpt/ip/wipo-sports.html

Proposals to Regulate the Public's Rights to use Information stored in Databases

Public Domain, P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036.

(Contains many hyperlinks to other sites on the Web, including many on this list.)

http://www.public-domain.org/database/database.html

Public-Domain's Information on Copyright Policies

http://www.public-domain.org/copyright/copyright.html

Intellectual property rights in data?

by J.H. Reichman & Pamela Samuelson, Vanderbilt Law Review, 50, (1) 51-166, January, 1997
(This document is no longer available on the World Wide Web)

Legally Speaking: Legal Protections for Database Contents

by Pamela Samuelson, Communications of the ACM, (November, 1996)
(This document is no longer available on the World Wide Web)

Industry Perspectives on Database Protection

Information Industry Association (IIA)

(IIA says it is the main trade association pushing for the treaty.)

http://www.infoindustry.org/ppgrc/prc/prc.htm

U.S. Industry needs legislation to protect investment in databases

http://www.infoindustry.org/ppgrc/prc/prdoc001.htm

Digital Future Coalition International Issues

http://www.ari.net/dfc/intl/intl.htm

(Science,  Nature, and New York Times articles are generally available on the World Wide Web to individuals who subscribe to those publications' on-line services. Though Technology Review puts articles on the World Wide Web, columns are not included.)

Taking on the Database Challenge--and Winning

by Robert M. White, Technology Review, Vol. 100, May-June, 1997, page 65.

(The author is President Emeritus of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.)

The Cheerful Giver: a businessman with a corner of publishing court documents was also a master of political donations

by Viveca Novak and Michael Weisskopf, Time Magazine, April 21, 1997, Vol. 149, No. 16, p. 80

http://pathfinder.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970421/nation.the_cherful_g.html

(This article reports on links between political fund raising and the database property rights treaty.)

Copyright: Evolution, Not Revolution

by Jukka Liedes, Science, Vol. 276, 11 April, 1997, pp. 223-225

(The author was chairman of the WIPO Expert Committee that prepared the draft database treaty.
A discussion forum of the issues raised in the paper may be found at http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/forum.shl.)

What's New, by Bob Park, American Physical Society

Digital Agenda: Battle shifting from treaty to legislation?

Digital Agenda: Proposed database treaty has been dropped

Digital Agenda: Internet companies join in condemning treaty

Digital Agenda: Scientists be damned--full speed ahead

Digital Agenda: White House Science Office was out to lunch!

Digital Agenda: Information superhighway or private toll road?

(This is a series of personal comments on database property rights. "Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the APS, but they should be.")

World Panel Meets to Revise Copyright Laws

by Peter H. Lewis, New York Times, 2 Dec. 1996

US science lobby intensifies attack on database pact . . .

by Colin Macilwain, Nature, Vol. 383, 28 Nov. 1996

. . . as opposition makes delay likely

by Declan Butler, Nature, Vol. 383, 28 Nov. 1996

Researchers resist copyright laws that could endanger data access

by Colin Macilwain, Nature, Vol. 383, 24 Oct. 1996, p. 653.

Treaty Draft Raises Scientific Hackles

by Andrew Lawler, Science, Volume 274, Number 5287, 25 October 1996, p.494

Database Access Fight Heats Up

by Andrew Lawler, Science, Volume 274, Number 5290, 15 November 1996, p. 1074

Five US national library organizations

(Dated 7 November 1996 to John H. Gibbons, Office of Science and Technology Policy)

http://www.public-domain.org/database/wipo-library.html

The presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

(Dated 9 October 1996, to the US Commerce Secretary, Mickey Kantor)

http://arl.cni.org/info/frn/copy/data.html

The US Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee

(FNCAC Resolution: WIPO - Proposed Database Treaty, dated 18 November, 1996)

http://www.fnc.gov/wipo_resolution.html

The American Society for Microbiology

(Dated 19 November, 1996, to the US Patent and Trademark Office.)

http://www.asmusa.org/pasrc/datbase.htm

 

Prepared by Ferris Webster, University of Delaware Chairman, ICSU/CODATA ad-hoc group on data and information ferris@udel.edu

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30 November, 2000