Abstract

The article explains who qualifies as a legal user of a database and what such status means in practice - especially when the question arises whether using a database always requires a license. The author outlines two independent regimes of database protection: the sui generis right, which primarily protects a crucial part of database contents, and copyright protection, which covers only the creative selection or system (structure) of data. The article also clarifies practical consequences of this distinction from the user’s perspective - how the separate protection regimes affect the legal aspects of using databases, and when (and for whom) the statutory provisions permit the use of specific elements of a database even when the relevant licensing provisions are missing.