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Database Rights Explained for Open Data Publishers

By Open Data Manual editors · Published 4 November 2026 · Editorial standard

Whether data is protected by law, and by which law, decides what an open licence actually needs to do. The manual's appendix What Legal (IP) Rights Are There in Data(bases) introduces the distinction between a database's structure and its contents. This guide goes further into the two main layers of protection, copyright and the European database right, and the differences between the EU, the UK and the United States. It is general information, not legal advice.

Starting point: facts are not owned

Individual facts (a temperature reading, the date a school opened, the population of a town) are not protected by copyright anywhere. What can be protected is the way facts are selected and arranged, and, in Europe, the investment made in assembling them. Two separate rights can therefore apply to one database:

• copyright, if the selection or arrangement of the contents is original;
• the database right (in the EU and UK), if there was substantial investment in the contents.

Either, both or neither may apply to a given dataset, and the software or documentation around it may carry its own copyright.

The EU Database Directive

Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases was adopted on 11 March 1996 (text on EUR-Lex). It does two things.

Copyright in databases (Article 3)

A database is protected by copyright if, by reason of the selection or arrangement of its contents, it constitutes the author's own intellectual creation. A telephone directory listing every subscriber alphabetically is unlikely to qualify. A curated anthology of historical records, chosen and ordered by a researcher, may.

The sui generis right (Article 7)

Separately, the maker of a database gets a right of its own kind (sui generis) where there has been a qualitatively or quantitatively substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the contents. The right lets the maker prevent extraction or re-utilisation of all or a substantial part of the contents. Repeated, systematic extraction of insubstantial parts can also infringe if it conflicts with normal exploitation of the database.

The right lasts 15 years from 1 January of the year after the database was completed (Article 10). A substantial change to the contents that amounts to a substantial new investment can give the resulting database its own term, which in practice means a continuously updated database can stay protected.

Creating data versus obtaining it

The Court of Justice of the European Union narrowed the right in British Horseracing Board v William Hill (C-203/02, 2004). The court held that the relevant investment is in seeking out and collecting existing materials, not in creating the data in the first place. Money spent producing race fixtures, for instance, did not count. This matters for public bodies: data generated as a by-product of an organisation's main activity may attract less protection than often assumed. The boundary is not always clear, which is why publishers should license rather than rely on the right being absent.

The UK after Brexit

The UK implemented the Directive through the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 and kept a domestic database right after leaving the EU. According to the UK government's guidance on database rights after the transition period:

• rights in databases created before 1 January 2021 continue in the UK and the EEA for the rest of their term;
• for databases created on or after that date, UK owners cannot hold database rights in the EEA;
• only UK citizens, residents and businesses are eligible for UK database right in new databases.

The United States

US law has no equivalent of the sui generis right. In Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service (1991), the Supreme Court held that copyright requires originality and rejected the "sweat of the brow" idea that hard work in collecting facts is enough. A database is protected only to the extent its selection or arrangement is original, and the facts themselves remain free. In addition, works produced by US federal government employees in the course of their duties are not protected by copyright in the United States, which is why much federal data is in the public domain there by default.

Contracts and terms of use can still restrict access to data in any country, but those bind only the parties who accept them; they are not property rights in the data.

Comparison at a glance

	EU	UK	US
Copyright in original selection/arrangement	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sui generis database right	Yes, 15 years	Yes, 15 years (own regime since 2021)	No
Who qualifies for the database right	EU/EEA makers	UK citizens, residents, businesses (new databases)	n/a
Federal/central government works	Depends on member state	Crown copyright	No copyright for federal works

What this means for open data publishers

1. Always apply a licence or dedication. Because it is often unclear whether rights exist, clarity is the main benefit, as the manual's chapter Apply an Open License stresses.
2. Choose a tool that covers database rights. CC0 1.0 waives them explicitly. CC BY 4.0 licenses them in section 4. The Open Data Commons PDDL, ODC-By and ODbL were written for databases. The UK Open Government Licence covers both copyright and database right.
3. Check third-party rights. If part of your database came from someone else under restrictive terms, you may not be able to open that part.
4. Remember that structure and documentation can be copyrighted. Licence the schema and documentation along with the data.

What this means for reusers

If you extract data from a European database without a licence, the question is whether you took a substantial part, measured by quantity or by the investment behind that part. Taking a few facts is generally fine; copying most of a commercial database is not. When in doubt, look for an open licence, ask the publisher, or use an alternative source.

Frequently asked questions

What is the sui generis database right?

A right created by the EU Database Directive 96/9/EC that protects the maker of a database who made a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting its contents, against extraction or re-utilisation of all or a substantial part of those contents.

How long does database right last?

Fifteen years from 1 January of the year after the database was completed. A substantial change backed by a substantial new investment can start a new term for the resulting database.

Is there a database right in the United States?

No. US law has no sui generis database right. Following the Supreme Court's Feist decision (1991), copyright protects only original selection or arrangement, not facts or the effort of collecting them.

What changed for UK database right after Brexit?

Rights in databases made before 1 January 2021 continue in the UK and EEA for their full term. For databases made from that date, UK owners cannot hold the EU right in the EEA, and only UK citizens, residents and businesses are eligible for the UK right.

Do open licences cover database rights?

CC0 1.0, CC BY 4.0, the Open Data Commons licences (PDDL, ODC-By, ODbL) and the UK Open Government Licence all deal with database rights. Earlier Creative Commons versions are less clear, which is one reason to use version 4.0.

More practical guides

• CSV vs JSON
• Metadata standards (DCAT)
• FAIR data principles
• The CC0 license
• CC BY 4.0 for data
• Open Database License (ODbL)