Research On Legal Protection Of Database

The technical revolution that began in the 1960s and the accompanying rapid development of science and technology has caused great societal changes and has pushed mankind into the Information Age, or the era of the knowledge economy. An Information Age society creates information in abundance and disseminates it rapidly, with information playing an increasingly large role in the development of both national and international economies. In such a society, information is a commodity and perhaps the main source of wealth, and thus ownership of information becomes increasingly important. Information trading services exist to gather, order, store and spread this information and become pillars of Information Age economy. But, as with the accompanying scientific advances, the explosion of data in modern society is a double-edged sword. While this abundance of information has great benefits, how to query this voluminous sea of information quickly, accurately and completely is already a troubling issue. The database industry, very much a dark horse among the bright stars of this new economy, is slowly becoming more important as it is recognized that databases, if well-constructed, can save vast amounts of manpower, material and financial resources, and end-user time. These savings can then be invested in further scientific and technical endeavors that further benefit social development. The creation of these databases usually involves an enormous investment. As databases always have great economic and commercial value, database producers invest large sums in the creation of these databases, knowing that their profits will cover their investments in the long-term. In recent years, with the development of affordable mass storage media and computerized search tools, the value of these databases has skyrocketed. However, while the electronic nature of these databases has made it increasingly convenient for the end-user to access and handle large quantities of data, this same convenience allows for easy duplication and thus easy theft of these databases by would-be data pirates. As the Internet has no national boundaries, electronic databases are more easily duplicated and used illegally, and the consequence of this infringement is more serious than with traditional paper databases. Legal protection of these databases must therefore be even more aggressive than the protection of traditional information sources. Thus, intellection property protection has been added as a new subject within the study of law. There are five chapters in this article: Chapter one is about the concept and the character of database and the development of databases Industry. Chapter two is about the analysis of Copyright protection. Requirements for copyright protection: first, the copyrighted database must belong to a compilation; second, the selection or arrangement of the database must be original; third, the content of the database is not protected. The main purpose of the database is to collect as much relevant data as possible and at the same time reduce storage space, allow convenient searching, and arrange data accurately for the greatest commercial effect. These databases must cater to the habits of its users, and thus offer thedatabase designer little leeway in terms of personalized design. Databases must be designed according to certain characteristics that users know and accept. Electronic databases are no different, and are designed to conform to insiders' expectations. Thus putting electronic databases under existing copyright law is awkward. Either copyright law needs to be expanded and twisted to meet database owner's needs, or the legislature needs to consider auxiliary protective measures to answer database producers' complaints that they are not sufficiently covered under current copyright law. Originality in selection and arrangement is another requirement for copyright protection, but to database producers and users a database's real value is in its content, not the originality of its selection and arrangement. As computerized retrieval tools continue to advance selection and arrangement will become increasingly irrelevant, making it impossible to ensure the protection of databases under copyright law based on the originality of its selection and arrangement. Further, the existing originality requirement is in conflict with the practicality of databases, increasing the database producer's cost and hampering the industry's progress. Relaxing the originality requirement to protect databases, however, will cause confusion between copyright law and other laws and shake the theoretical basis on which copyright law is formed, though otherwise the ambiguity of the originality criterion increases the difficulty of protecting database with copyright law. Chapter three is about the analysis of the protection through the Anti-Unfair Competition Act and contract law. While the Anti-Unfair Competition Act can resolve issues regarding unfair competition between competitors, it can do nothing when the infringeris a common actor and not a competitor limited by the competitive environment. The trade secrets clause, when applied to databases whose contents are indeed trade secrets, is the most attractive element of the Act, but databases of this sort are few and far between. Since databases derive much of their value from the ability to be publicly accessed, most cannot be labeled trade secrets and thus the Anti-Unfair Competition Act cannot be tasked to alone protect databases. The principles of equality, mutual benefits, compensation and good fair are found in contract law. These can protect the database producer's economic benefits by resisting the improper use of their database by others within certain limits. The database producer may, for instance, request the buyer sign a written contract as a prerequisite to buying the database, and this contract can limit the rights of the buyer to reveal, copy or share the data. This is powerful protection. However, despite this strength, contract law cannot resist the infringement by third parties. Contract law offers the most opportunity with which to evade the law and seek illegal interests. Copyrighting databases may bring new uncertainty to the copyright framework and aggravate the conflicts within copyright law, and it still cannot ensure the development of database. The Anti-Unfair Competition Act and contract law cannot resist infringement by a third part and is thus also not qualified to protect databases. There, a new protective law must be found for databases. Chapter four is about Special rights protection of database. Lately, special rights protection of databases is a popular viewpoint and has become a legal reality. Because other forms of protection cannot provide sufficient...