Matěj Myška

Database authorship and ownership of sui generis database rights in data-driven research

ABSTRACT The research objective of the article is to analyse the rules on authorship and joint authorship of databases, as well as the ownership and joint ownership of database makers’ sui generis rights as provided for in the Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases (DD) and its selected national implementations, and to identify the underlying problems and discuss solutions how to overcome them contractually. In order to achieve this objective, an analysis of the black-letter law and case law is provided in the second section of the paper. The DD, however, does not provide much guidance when it comes to defining the author (or joint authors) and owner (or joint owners) and leaves a lot of leeway to Member States, as is further analysed in the third section. In the fourth section of the paper, the focus turns to issues of applicable law that determine the author(s) and rights owner(s) in cases where the protectable subject matter was created/produced jointly by multiple entities from various jurisdictions. In the final fifth section of the paper, the appropriate contractual arrangements of jointly owned rights are presented as a possible solution to the legal uncertainty raised by the current black-letter law.

Less is More? Protecting Databases in the EU after Ryanair

This paper discussed the current status quo of legal protection of databases after the Ryanair case (C-30/14). The first part focuses on the subject matter, scope and limits of legal protection for databases according to the Directive 96/9/EC and the related relevant Court of Justice of the European Union case law. Next, it briefly discusses further possibilities of protection for databases not protected by the copyright and/or sui generis database rights. The second part analyses the recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case Ryanair (C-30/14). The third part then discusses the consequences of this decision as regards to potential monopolisation of synthetic data by contract. The conclusions are summed up in the final fourth part.

Data protection and codes of conduct in collaborative research

ABSTRACT The article aims to describe the current status quo of codes of conduct applied by research institutions to manage data protection issues in light of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We assessed whether the current codes of conduct meet the criteria of codes of conduct as defined by Article 40 of the GDPR. We have found that there are very few ‘codes of conduct’ or good practices that would meet the definition set out in Article 40 of the GDPR. We have found that universities and research institutions had neither the incentives nor the resources to create internationally binding codes of conduct and settled for declarative documents or internal guidelines. A good level of compliance with the Data Protection Directive and national laws was adopted even without codes of conduct which would apply beyond a single institution or grant agency. We have identified that the demand and need for binding codes of conduct are increasing, albeit only in specific research fields. The main incentive is international cooperation, the need for the standardization of data protocols, and most likely fear of high sanctions introduced by GDPR.

Free Licenses and Recodification of Civil Law in the Czech Republic

This chapter provides general information on the legal status of Free and Open Source Software Licenses (e.g. GNU General Public License, the MIT License) and other alternative licenses (e.g. Creative Commons) under Czech law. The issues are discussed under both contract law and copyright law following the recodification of Czech civil law through the adoption of the new Czech Civil Code. The discussed topics concerning contract law include, inter alia, the legal nature of F/OSS and alternative licenses (i.e. whether they are to be construed as contracts or unilateral instruments), formal requirements, standard terms and conditions, language issues, special rules of interpretation, disclaimers of warranty and liability and the termination of granted licenses. The issues of copyright law include, inter alia, the interpretation of broad and unspecific terms in license contracts, questions concerning unknown modes of use of a work at the time of the conclusion of the license agreement, revocation or rescission rights in copyright legislation, sub-licensing, statutory rights for equitable remuneration, participation in the distribution of revenues by collection societies, the right to modify the copyrighted work and moral rights, and remedies in the case of termination of the licensee’s right. Other issues, e.g. the competition law aspects of F/OSS licenses, are also discussed.