----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Sylvia,
 
Maybe the following will help:
 
After deliberations with the European Parliament the Economic and
Social Committee of the European Committee has published on 15
November 1993 a "Proposal for a database guideline" (Official
journal EC C 308). The guideline concerns only databases in
electronic form. It concerns as well copyright as also
extraction-rights and its validity depends on the nature of the
database (full-text, actual databases without structure, actual
databases with non-relevant structure without copyright, actual
databases with non-relevant structure with copyright etc.).
Copyright is given for 50 years after death of author or first
publication, extraction rights are given for 15 years. The rights
cover very diverse databases, e.g. thesauri of libraries can also
come under this guideline. However this is only an 'official'
proposal and not yet an official guideline or decree.
Probably the text in the Official journal can provide you with
better information.
 
Jan Smits
Mapcurator Royal Library, the National Library of The Netherlands
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