Congress debates database copyright Bill

US Congress is considering a Bill that would give copyright protection to databases, even if they consist of information which is already publicly available.

At present, many companies pour resources into assembling databases of information from publicly available records. However, there is no law that prevents others from copying and using that data.

But now Republican Representative, Howard Coble has reintroduced a Bill that would extend copyright to these databases.

This is Coble's second attempt to push through the bill. Database protection was removed from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act when it passed through Congress last October.

Opponents of the Bill - which include the Clinton administration - say the law should not provide copyright protection to information culled from the public domain. Graham Smith, partner at UK law firm, Bird & Bird, said this is one area where the US lags behind Europe. "We already have this legislation in the form of the European Database Directive," he said.

Smith explained that while no one can copyright the publicly available elements of a database, such as addresses and phone numbers, the collection as a whole is subject to copyright in Europe.

The US, however, still has a more traditional view of copyright - one that protects only creative works, rather than lists of compiled data.