Electronic databases: a legal perspective

This article examines some of the legal issues surrounding electronic databases. Although the creator of a database needs to take care in compiling and exploiting it, the law does provide quite extensive protection. This article outlines some of the more important issues, although there are others which should not be overlooked. Legal rights are determined by national legislation and vary from country to country, and although this article does touch on some of the international aspects it deals primarily with the position in the United Kingdom. The author discusses the Data Protection Act, copyright, copy protection, unauthorised extraction right, unfair competition, and competition law.<>