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Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

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created by the EU Database Directive, to prevent non-competingas well as competing uses <strong>of</strong> substantial portions <strong>of</strong> a database,thus recreating a limited form <strong>of</strong> the “sweat <strong>of</strong> the brow”protection laid to rest in Feist.71 By contrast, H.R. 1858 wouldprovide a narrower form <strong>of</strong> misappropriation protection byprohibiting only (1) the sale or distribution to the public <strong>of</strong> acompeting duplicate <strong>of</strong> a database collected and organized byanother and (2) misappropriation <strong>of</strong> real-time market information,thus effectively “re-federalizing” the holding in InternationalNews, at least as applied to databases.Other countries are closely following the debate in the UnitedStates over database protection. Japan may have opted in favor <strong>of</strong>an unfair competition approach to database protection when itamended its Unfair Competition <strong>Law</strong> in 1993 to prohibit, for alimited three-year term <strong>of</strong> protection, the slavish imitation(referred to in Japanese as “dead copies”) <strong>of</strong> another’s goods.72While the subject <strong>of</strong> slavish copying under Japan’s UnfairCompetition <strong>Law</strong> can only be products, not services, computers<strong>of</strong>tware and databases apparently qualify as products whenmarketed on floppy discs or CDs, and the law may even extend tovirtual goods.73 Australia is said to be “walking a fine linebetween, on the one hand, supporting improvement <strong>of</strong> copyrightprotection against new uses in the digital environment and, on theother, avoiding excessive copyright protection resulting in denial<strong>of</strong> reasonable access to works and/or increased adverse balance <strong>of</strong>trade in copyright royalties.”74 Korea is also considering howdatabases ought to be protected.75 Accordingly, the choice <strong>of</strong> oneU.S. bill over the other will be extremely influential intext.71. H.R. 354, § 1409(d).72. See Unfair Competition Act [Japan], <strong>Law</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 47/1993, § 2(3) (May 19, 1993);see generally Christopher Heath, The System <strong>of</strong> Unfair Competition Prevention inJapan 120-40 (2001) (discussing Japan’s approach to combating unfair competition).73. See Heath, supra note 72, at 130-31.74. Matilda in Cyberspace, Berne Protocol–Latest Development (July 9, 1996) (emailfrom Jaime Wodetski, commenting on database protection proposals prepared forthe benefit <strong>of</strong> the Libraries Copyright Committee), athttp://www.anu.edu.au/Matilda/issues/199607/715.source.html (last visited Apr. 11,2001).75. See Sang Jo Jong & Junu Park, Property versus Misappropriation: LegalProtection for Databases in Korea, 8 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol’y (forthcoming) (2002).75. See Sang Jo Jong & Junu Park, Property versus Misappropriation: LegalProtection for Databases in Korea, 8 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol’y (forthcoming) (2002).

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