On Wednesday the 2nd of March we hosted a Salon on the treatment of the Sui Generis Database Right (SGDR) in the European Commission’s proposal for a Data Act.
Moderated by Paul Keller, the Salon started with Krzysztof Nichczynski (DG Connect, European Commission), who shared insights into the Commission’s thinking on the Sui Generis Database Right and on how it relates to the policy objectives related to increasing access to IoT data and Business to Government data sharing in the Public Interest. This was followed by a presentation by Martin Husovec (Assistant Professor of Law at LSE), who raised a number of concerns about the Commission’s approach and pointed out that there is a need for a more holistic approach to the Sui Generis Database Right.Â
After this Felix Reda (former MEP & Project Lead control © at GFF) shed some light on the problematic nature of the Sui Generis Database Right by highlighting ongoing legal actions against open data activists in Germany that are facing civil and criminal liability for allegedly infringing the SGDR covering publicly produced geo-information. In the final Intervention Teresa Nobre (COMMUNIA) expressed our disappointment that the Commission has not conducted a more substantial review of the Database Directive and re-iterated COMMUNIA’s position: that the Sui Generis Database right should be repealed.
The discussion was followed by a Q&A session with the participants.
