Clarification of GPL

'Arnoud Engelfriet' galactus at stack.nl
Mon Dec 15 15:28:17 UTC 2003


Gream, Matthew wrote:
> > That's Directive 96/9/EC. I do not think the sui generis
> > database protection can be applied to computer programs. There
> > has to be qualitatively and/or quantitatively a substantial
> > investment in either the obtaining, verification or presentation of
> > the contents (art. 7(1)). European caselaw seems to focus on the
> > principle that the investment has to be primarily aimed at these
> > activities. If the database is a "spin-off", a byproduct of something
> > else, it's not protected.
> > http://www.ivir.nl/publications/hugenholtz/fordham2001.html
> 
> I'm not sure either that it could be applied to computer programs as such,
> but for example a large scale continually evolving project such as an
> operating system residing in a CVS repository seems to fall in the scope of
> the protection. 

Was there a substantial investment in creating the CVS repository
of code? It seems to me the investment was in writing the code,
not in putting the code in the repository. That seems to disqualify
the repository from database protection under the "spin-off" doctrine.

Here in the Netherlands, the national association of realtors put
the information on houses for sale online in a web database. 
Previously every realtor had his own private little database. This
web database was held to be a spin-off without substantial investment,
since the investments made by the realtors were primarily aimed at
their own databases, not the web edition.

> Anyway, I agree that these rights are not fully fleshed out, I was trying to
> make a point about how the original copyright in a patch could expire, but
> the patch may still be protected from extraction of the overall work.

That may indeed be the case, although I think it may be difficult
to encounter such a situation in practice.

Arnoud

-- 
Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/
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