The 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaties: 10 Years Later. Panel 3: The Database Protection Debate

November 10, 2006 Presented by: Center for Law, Technology and the Arts Cosponsored by: the Frederick K Cox International Law Center Fifth Annual LTA Symposium Mark Davison, Professor and Associate Dean (Undergraduate Studies), Monash Law School, Monash University Marshall Leaffer, Distinguished Scholar in IP Law and University Fellow, Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington Guido Westkamp, Senior Lecturer in IP Law, Queen Mary, University of London In 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted two treaties pertaining to copyrights in the digital age the Copyright Treaty, and the Performances and Phonograms Treaty. As a result, legislatures from signatory countries, including the U.S., adopted various revisions to their copyright legislation. In the U.S., this included the enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as well as attempts to draft legislation to protect proprietary interests in valuable commercial databases. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the treaties. The symposium will provide a 10-year retrospective on the legal and policy issues underlying the adoption of the treaties and the ramifications of the implementation of relevant treaty provisions into local law. The symposium will include speakers from the U.S. and various other jurisdictions to compare legislative and judicial approaches to a number of issues arising under the WIPO treaties