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Science 26 October 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5543, pp. 789 - 790
DOI: 10.1126/science.1062695
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Policy Forum

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
Europe's Database Experiment

Stephen M. Maurer,* P. Bernt Hugenholtz, Harlan J. Onsrud

Database protection laws in Europe may have produced a modest, one-time growth spurt for commercial providers. Unfortunately, Europe's new database laws have also produced significant problems including overprotection of low-value data (e.g., telephone books), new barriers to database integration, and further erosion of the public domain. The authors of this Policy Forum caution that these problems could cripple commercial and academic science.

S. M. Maurer is a practicing attorney at 2632 Hilgard Street, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA. H. Onsrud is in the Department of Spatial Information Studies, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5711 USA. P. B. Hugenholtz is in the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam, Rokin 84, NL-1012 KX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: maurer{at}econ.berkeley.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)