Comments/Opinions/Suggestions (Fwd: Policy
Forum: Intellectual Property Rights)
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 10:18:37 -0400
X-Sender: Les Meredith <les@usra.edu>
Subject: Fwd: Policy Forum: Intellectual Property Rights
Policy Forum: Intellectual Property Rights
Database Protection: Is It Broken and Should We Fix It?"
By Stephen M Maurer and Suzanne Scotchmer
This short article is protected by copyright so is only referenced
and summarized here. It first gives a summary of past database
protection activities including a list of references. It then
summarizes potential benefits of database protection as well as their
potential harm to the scientific endeavor. Finally it addresses
Congressional options. To quote the article's final paragraph:
Database legislation could turn out to be a radical experiment. The
U.S. economy has never tried to operate under a statue where most
"collections of information were protected. In the absence of clear
evidence that a statute is needed, the traditional bias in favor of
keeping data in the public domain ought to be decisive."
LHM
