<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/24/the-ratchet-even-demonstrably-ineffectual-and-unnecessary-copyright-laws-are-never-repealed/>
"The European Union is working on a number of important new digital laws. These
includes the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the Data Act. A
new press release about the last of these contains the following section:
the Data Act reviews certain aspects of the Database Directive, which was
created in the 1990s to protect investments in the structured presentation
of data. Notably, it clarifies that databases containing data from
Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and objects should not be subject to
separate legal protection. This will ensure they can be accessed and used.
The Database Directive mentioned there grants copyright protection to databases
that “by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, constitute
the author’s own intellectual creation”. It’s a typical attempt to widen the
scope of copyright to something that has only the most tenuous kind of
“creativity” involved. It was brought in because copyright maximalists believe
you can’t have too much copyright, and politicians are too lazy to argue.
Unusually, though, the EU agreed to do something that is never done: to review
whether extending copyright actually brings any benefits."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
