Evaluation And Enlightenment Of The Implementation Effect Of EU Databasespecial Rights System

"Half of knowledge is looking for knowledge".As a tool for looking for knowledge,the importance of database is self-evident.However,with the development of science and technology,the problem of database infringement is becoming more and more serious.As the pioneer of database protection,the EU has implemented the database directive for 26 years.The directive adopts a two-tier model to protect the database:copyright protects the structure of the database,and the contents of the database are protected by special rights to prevent unauthorized theft.Inspired by the European Union’s special rights,Chinese scholars have proposed three weighted database protection paths,including "copyright+special rights","copyright+adjacent rights" and "separate special rights".There are also scholars who have raised objections to this.They believe that it is sufficient to protect the database only by making appropriate adjustments to the anti unfair competition law.The practice of EU’s database special rights system provides a good sample for China’s database protection legislation,and its successful experience and lessons are valuable.From the legislative process of the EU special rights system,this paper finds that the introduction of the special rights system is actually a process of balancing individual interests and public interests,and the final special rights system tends to protect individual interests.From the perspective of the implementation effect of special rights,four objectives were set at the beginning of the legislation of special rights,namely,encouraging the investment of database producers,ensuring the balance of interests between database producers and legitimate users,enhancing the competitiveness of the EU database industry,surpassing the United States,and unifying the legal protection of databases by EU Member States.However,these four goals have not been fully achieved after many years of implementation.The reasons are as follows:first,the core concepts in special rights are not clearly defined,such as the vague standards of "large investment" and "substantive part",and the unclear explanations of "database producers" and "legitimate users".Secondly,there are few reasonable use cases stipulated in the special rights system,and there is no compulsory license system,resulting in the imbalance of interests between the database producers and the public.Finally,the rights and obligations in the special rights system are not equal,and there is no provision on the product liability of the database producer.China should pay special attention to the above problems when selecting and optimizing database protection paths,clarify the standards of database protection,and establish a good interest balance mechanism.The essence of the anti unfair competition law is a tool used by the state to ensure the benign development of the market.Therefore,it is impossible to set up a period of rights,reasonable use and legal license.From the current research results,the optimization path of the anti unfair competition law cannot establish a good interest balance mechanism.Therefore,the database empowerment protection path becomes a possibility,but the above three paths can not be simply applicable.We should establish a database protection path suitable for China on the basis of overcoming the defects of special rights.