| Abstract [eng] |
Prospects and Weaknesses of Database Legal Protection in the Digital Economy This paper focuses on the analysis of the sui generis right of databases makers under the Database Directive and Republic of Lithuania Law on Copyright and Related Rights and it analyzes weaknesses of database legal protection in the context of the digital economy and assesses the possible ways to eliminate weaknesses of database legal protection and the prospects for database legal protection if corrections were made or not implemented. The first chapter of the thesis analyzes the definition of the database in the Database Directive and the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and examines the sui generis right, its protection, the criteria for obtaining legal protection and the limitations of the sui generis right, as well as the ECJ rulings interpreting the sui generis right. In addition, this chapter reveals the definition of the digital economy and the challenges that the digital economy poses to the legal protection of databases. The second chapter of the thesis identifies and addresses two major weaknesses of the sui generis legal protection in the context of the digital economy: (i) disregards the legitimate interest of database makers, since substantial investments in the generation of data contained in the database are not legally protected by Database Directive; (ii) disregards the legitimate interest of database producers by over-restricting their right to extract and re-use part of the content of a database. This chapter also assesses ways to address the legal protection of databases. The third chapter of the thesis examines and evaluates alternative data protection institutes – trade secret protection, contractual protection, unfair competition protection, and protection that can be created by data producer’s right (which is not implemented yet) in the context of the digital economy. These alternative forms of protection are compared to the sui generis legal protection. |
